I Hate Everything About You
by hillroy
Summary: He's the school player, and she's the new girl from Phoenix. He's a jerk, she's hardheaded. The last thing anybody expects is for these two to fall in love, especially since they undeniably hate eachother. All Human. OOC. BxE.
1. From Phoenix To Forks

BPOV

Great. Just swell. Of course having been to Forks once before (mind you, only several years ago) I knew what the weather could be like. But a small part of me had still been expecting the familiar sunshine and warmth that graced my hometown of Phoenix upon exiting the plane.

I had descended from the plane, not looking away from the stairs until I was safely on the ground. I didn't want to chance wiping out. Then I had taken a deep breath and raised my face to the sky.

Big mistake. Instead of the familiar sunshine, I got a face full of rain.

Even with my eyes swollen shut from the unwanted water, it wasn't too difficult to find Charlie and his police cruiser. Or Dad, as I had to call him to his face. I made my way across the wet pavement to him, dragging my heavy suitcases behind me.

"Bells!" he cried, pulling me into a tight hug the moment I reached him.

"Hey Dad," I said happily once he released me. My enthusiasm was fake of course, but I doubted he knew that.

Charlie helped me shove my rather large amount of luggage into the trunk of the cruiser, and then indicated for me to take the passenger seat. In the half-moment I was alone while Charlie walked to his door, I glanced down and groaned.

My once favorite outfit looked as though it had been run over by a bus. I knew it had been a bit risky wearing it on the long flight, but the results were worse than I thought possible. Not only was the dark blue v-neck (the colour of which I found complimented my pale skin nicely) wrinkled and soaked, there was a large stain of something right in the front. Damn airplane food. My black skinny jeans didn't look quite as disheveled, but still worse than before.

I scrubbed fruitlessly at the stain on my once favorite shirt, but eventually gave up with a groan, banging my head against the cool window. I _hated _Forks.

EPOV

"Edward," my girlfriend, Lauren Mallory moaned my name as I kissed her neck. I sighed inwardly. She was really starting to bore me. The very thought of trying to have an intellectual conversation with Lauren was laughable, so kissing was the only thing we ever did, and it was beginning to lose its splendor.

I pulled away, checking the clock beside her bed as I did so. Good, it was five o'clock – I finally had an excuse to leave.

"Sorry Lauren, I have to get home for dinner. You know how Esme can get," I lied, disentangling myself from her and standing up. She stared up at me, pouting in what she obviously thought was a seductive way. I found it slightly nauseating.

"You never have time for me anymore," she batted her eyelashes and leaned forward, "why don't you stay the night?"

"Er, no. I have to go. See you at school tomorrow," I rushed from the room as quickly as possible, leaving Lauren looking pretty pissed off.

I relaxed once I was out of her house and in my silver Volvo. I really had to do something about her – once a girl's attempts at flirting become repulsive, it's time to move on.

The only thing was I didn't know what to move on _to_. I had already dated the majority of the female population of Forks. I pushed Lauren from my mind as I pulled into the driveway of my house. I'd worry about girls tomorrow, the first day of school after summer break. Maybe there would be a new girl, or I could revisit an old one. Either way, Lauren had to go.

BPOV

After an hour driving, the cruiser finally pulled into the driveway of Charlie's house. Of course it was raining – this was Forks, after all. I stepped out of the car and pulled the hood of my black raincoat over my head, in a pathetic attempt to keep myself dry. I was already halfway up the driveway when I noticed something. A big red truck, to be exact, sitting right in front of the house. The sight of the truck reminded me of the fact that I didn't have one here. Great. Now I'd either have to get a ride in the cruiser or walk to school tomorrow.

I examined the truck more closely. I rather liked it – it looked as though it would suit me. I wondered idly if Charlie would let me buy it off of him.

"Do you like it?" Charlie asked from behind, after watching me scrutinize the truck. I nodded, and was just beginning to ask if I could buy it from him when he interrupted.

"Well, it's yours," he said gruffly. I stared at him in shock.

"Really? Wow! Thanks!" I ran over and hugged him. He patted my back awkwardly, but when I released him he was smiling.

"Let's get your stuff inside before we get pneumonia,"

I smiled. Tomorrow would be just a little less horrible.

Charlie helped me drag my two over-packed suitcases into my room. I'd had to leave the majority of my clothing back home, because it wasn't well suited for the constant rain of Forks, but several intense shopping trips while still in Phoenix had provided me with a passable wardrobe.

I changed into dry clothes, then quickly unpacked all my belongings and shoved them into the closet. Only when I was done did I really get a chance to examine my room.

It looked almost the exact same as it had last name I was in Forks, except now there was an old computer desk shoved in the corner. The walls were still pale blue, the lace trim on the window was still intact – it was eerie.

I sighed. It would be a long time before this room began to feel like my own. Especially the light blue walls. That paired with the white furniture was giving me the impression of floating in the sky, surrounded by white clouds, and it was slightly unnerving. I decided I'd try to cover it, atleast until I got some decent paint.

I dug into my suitcase, extracting a small black box from the bottom. I smiled as I emptied the contents onto my bed. Out fell a dozen posters, all autographed, of my favourite bands: Linkin Park, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace, Atreyu, System Of A Down, Evanescence, Good Charlotte, and a couple others. I smiled, pulling out my Ipod as I debated internally where to put them all. I had enough to cover atleast one full wall of the horrendous blue.

With my music blasting in my ears, I proceeded to hang all my posters. When I was done I stepped back to admire my work. Good. My room, atleast, felt a bit like home.

I wandered downstairs, not really wanting any company but unable to find anything else productive to do upstairs. I tiptoed past the living room, where I could see Charlie was watching some kind of sport.

My attempts at sneaking unnoticed into the kitchen failed when I managed to trip over my own feet and fall to the floor with a bang. I grimaced. I was still just as clumsy as I had been in Phoenix.

"Are you okay, Bells?" Charlie asked, half rising from the couch. I scrambled to my feet, not wanting to make a scene.

"Of course. Um, can I make dinner?" I asked the first thing that popped into my head. I was used to making dinner, having been the only able chef in my old house.

"Sure, sure, knock yourself out," Charlie smiled briefly before sitting back down and returning his attention to the television.

I made my way slowly to the kitchen, not wanting to trip again. To my relief, I made it in unscathed.

I sighed when I opened the fridge. It was completely empty except for a half-dozen eggs and a carton of milk. What on earth did Charlie eat? Using what we had, I threw together a couple of omelets.

Dinner with Charlie was a bit awkward. We didn't talk at all, though to be honest I liked it better that way. We were both naturally silent people.

After finishing, I returned to my room, claiming I was tired from the long trip. Truthfully, I just wanted to be alone. I didn't cry – I never cried – but I really missed my friends from Phoenix. Especially Kyle and Daniel, whom I had been in a band with before I left. I smiled to myself, letting the memories of my two best friends wash over me.

That had been one of the hardest parts of leaving Phoenix – my band. Not only did I love being with my two favourite guys, I also loved singing. I had been the lead singer – it had made sense for me to front the band, since I loved the attention, and Kyle and Daniel had been always been a bit more reserved.

We had been good, too, playing somewhere almost every weekend. We had been going somewhere. And now it was over. The thought brought on a wave of pain so intense I almost gave into the sobs that were threatening to overcome me. But no, I had to stay strong. Strong like I had been my whole life. Strong like I would always be.

With that thought repeating in my head like a mantra, I fell into an uneasy sleep.


	2. What's Wrong With Me?

BPOV

I was awoken the next morning by Rihanna's "Umbrella" on the radio. I groaned, rolling over to turn it off. Unfortunately for me, my bed in Forks was a bit smaller than I was used to, so I ended up on the floor, still tangled in the blankets.

"Gah! I _hate_ _it _here!" I muttered under my breath. After getting up and tossing the blankets back on my bed, I ran to have a shower, and then pulled on my black skinny jeans, this time with a red and white striped t-shirt.

I hurried downstairs to have breakfast, and found a note from Charlie on the counter:

_Bella, _the note read,

I'm sorry, but I had to leave early for the station. I hope your truck runs okay – I made sure there was enough gas. Have fun at school!

_Ps. the highschool is right off the main highway_

_Love, Charlie_

After reading through the, I crumpled it and chucked it in the garbage. I was debating what to make for breakfast when I saw the time out of the corner of my eye. Great – I was going to be late! I groaned, and settled for an apple, deciding I would eat it on the way. I grabbed it and my back and ran outside, not bothering to lock the front door. It wasn't raining yet, but the sky was slate gray.

I couldn't help but smile a little when I saw my truck. I _really_ liked it. It was almost too good to be true. I jumped in, and then shoved the key into the ignition. I jumped a foot in the air when it turned on. It was louder than a Linkin Park concert! Oh well. There was bound to be atleast one thing wrong with my truck.

I drove as fast I could to school (which was about 60km/h, the most I could coax out of my truck), not wanting to be late on my first day. Forks High was not hard to find – like Charlie had said in his note, it was right off the main highway. I pulled into what I was sure was the teacher parking lot, right in front of the main office. I might as well get directions now instead of running around like an idiot the rest of the day.

I parked and turned off my truck, the walked briskly into the main office. I glanced around upon entering – it was nothing special. I spotted a large woman manning the only desk and approached her. She looked up at me.

"Hello dear, how can I help you?" she asked. I grimaced at the fact that she had referred to me as 'dear'.

"I'm Isabella," I said flatly. I felt no need to elaborate any further – this being such a small town I was probably expected.

True to my suspicions, realization lit her eyes after I told her my name.

"Of course, Chief Swan's daughter. Well, I have your schedule here, and a map," she said, extracting two white papers from a pile and handing them to me, "do you need me to highlight the fastest route to your classes?"

I grimaced again. What did she think I was, four? I was fairly certain I could find my own way around this dump.

"No thank you, I'll manage," she frowned at me, seeming slightly put-off by my attitude. Good.

"Well, just one more thing then," she pulled out a pink slip of paper, the fake smile once again plastered on her face, "just get this signed by all your teachers and bring it back to me after school. Good luck dear,"

I didn't respond, only grabbed the paper and left the office hurriedly. I let out a sigh of relief once I was inside my truck. I raced to the student parking lot, following the map the secretary had given me. When I reached it, I looked around. All the cars were older like mine, except one shiny, silver Volvo parked under a tree. Oh well. Atleast I'm not the only poor person here.

I was late now, so the parking lot was void of all students. I managed to find a space, then following my map, made my way to my first class.

English, Government, Trigonometry, and Spanish, my first four classes, passed without incident. I ignored everybody to the best of my ability, but there were always one or two people who felt the need to pester me with unwanted questions. One of these people, a rather annoying girl named Jessica, sat beside me in both Trig and Spanish, and invited me to sit with her at lunch.

I accepted the invitation without much thought. It was certainly better than sitting alone.

We made our way to the cafeteria, Jessica chatting on about nonsense the whole time. I didn't try to pay attention. When we reached the cafeteria she steered me towards a rather full lunch table. Jessica introduced me to Angela, Ben, Connor, Mike and Tyler. The latter two gazed at me with interest, so I scowled at them darkly, trying to let them know that I wasn't interested in dating anybody. Unfortunately, neither seemed to get the message.

It was very boring, sitting with these people. Their easy chattering held no interest to me whatsoever, so instead of paying attention, I took the time to examine the crowded lunchroom.

It was just like your average school cafeteria. I found all the usual cliques – the geeks, Goths, jocks, skanks (also known as cheerleaders). **A/N Sorry if you're a cheerleader. This is solely for the purpose of the story. I personally rather like cheerleaders, seeing as my best friend is one.**

I surveyed the last two without interest. They fit all the usual stereotypes – the cheerleaders were blonde and practically anorexic, except for an incredibly short, pixie-like girl with black, spiky hair. I noticed she was very pretty, especially compared to the fake-looking blonde she was sitting beside. To my surprise (and enjoyment) the pixie-girl seemed to be glaring at the others. I don't know why, but I got the feeling that she wasn't like the others.

The jocks were big, muscled and good-looking. The majority of them had one of the cheerleaders sitting on their lap.

I was about to turn away, when I saw something that made my breath catch in my throat.

There, sitting beside the fake-looking blonde girl was a Greek God. That was the only way I could describe him. Tousled bronze hair, and stunning green eyes that I could see even from across the room. His features were perfect, and his skin was extremely pale, though it only made him look more beautiful.

Wait, _beautiful?_ What was I thinking? This was just some boy. Probably the school player, judging by his good looks. I shook my head, trying to shake some sense into myself. I debated on whether or not I should ask Jessica who he was. I finally decided against it – it would look pathetic, me asking about a guy I had never even spoken to before.

The bell rang, signifying the end of lunch. I pushed all thoughts of the mysterious boy from my mind, and began making my way to my next class, Biology. To my dismay, Mike had the same class. He trotted by my side, chatting happily the entire way, while I pointedly ignored him. This didn't even seem to aggravate him – if anything, he looked happier every time I turned away from him, as though he thought I was playing some form of hard to get.

Finally we reached the class. We were the last to arrive, due to my effort to lose Mike on the way by taking the longest possible route. I looked around. All the desks were taken, except for one in the middle of the room. Beside the beautiful, bronze-haired boy.

I could tell it was him, even from the back. His hair made him impossible to mistake for anybody else. I took a deep breath, then made my way to the front of the class to get the pink slip signed by the teacher.

I could feel the eyes of all the students on me as I turned and walked slowly to take the seat beside Mr. Greek God.

I tried not to look at him as I sat down. If I just ignore him, I decided, maybe I'll stop thinking about him. I knew it was a long shot, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment.

My plan went completely down the drain, however, when I heard a musical voice beside me.

"Hello," said the boy. I instinctively looked at him, and instantly regretted it. Up close, he was even better looking. I found myself getting lost in his spectacular green eyes.

"Hi," I finally managed to stutter. Get a grip! He's just a boy! Be strong, I thought to myself, and it steadied me. I'm Bella Swan, for god's sake! I can handle a boy.

"I'm Edward Cullen," the boy said. I was almost lost in his velvety voice again, but after a short struggle, managed to control myself.

"Bella," I said faltly, looking pointedly away from him and back towards the teacher. I heard him chuckle quietly beside me.

After about half an hour of ignoring him, I figured I could chance a look at Edward. I glanced up from under my lashes at him, and to my surprise found him staring at me intently. I blushed, an annoying habit of mine, and quickly looked away. He chuckled again.

This annoyed me. Why was he looking at me? And was he _laughing _at me? How rude. I felt a wave of anger wash over me. I completely ignored him for the rest of the class, glaring at him whenever he tried to say something. Finally he got the message, and stopped trying to make small talk. Instead, he stared at the teacher, smirking, obviously amused by my behavior. This only enraged me further.

Finally, _finally_ the bell rang. I was just beginning to get my books together when a high-pitched squeal made me cover my ears.

"Eddy!" I turned to see the fake-looking blonde I had noticed in the cafeteria jump on Edward's back, her small, manicured hands covering his eyes.

'Guess who, Eddy," she purred in his ear. I couldn't hold back a snort. The blonde heard me and shot a death glare in my direction.

"Hello Lauren," Edward said. I couldn't help noticing he sounded slightly exasperated. She uncovered his eyes, and I snorted again. He glared at me. I smiled angelically, then ran from the room, still laughing quietly to myself.

I had been right – he was just another jock, dating some cheerleader just to have someone to make out with. I didn't know what had been wrong with me before – it wasn't like me be interested in somebody I didn't know, especially if that somebody looked like a model straight out of a fashion magazine. I had learned the hard way that those types were jerks.

Good. Now that I'm over my brief… infatuation with Edward Cullen, I can begin treating him like I treat any other one species – like the pariah he clearly is.


	3. What's Wrong With Me? EPOV

**A/N Wow! Thank you everyone for all the reviews, alerts, favourites and such. It means alot to me ) This chapter is 'What's Wrong With Me?' in Edward's point of view. Hope you like it!**

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EPOV

I groaned as the alarm clock beside my bed rang shrilly. It was the first day of school after a rather enjoyable summer vacation. I smirked to myself as I got out of bed, thinking of all the girls I had met…

Girls. That reminded me of Lauren. I groaned. I had been hinting lately that I didn't like her anymore, that we should break up, but instead of giving me the space I desperately needed, she was clinging on tighter than ever. I would _really_ have to do something about her.

I showered, got dressed and ate quickly. The result was that I was ready much earlier than my two siblings, Emmett and Alice. Many people had trouble believing we were all related, due to the fact that we looked nothing alike.

Alice was tiny. The smallest person our age I had ever seen. She had short, spiky black hair and more energy than one would think possible for someone her size.

Emmett, on the other hand, was huge. Extremely muscled, with curly black hair. We often joked that he was on steroids, though he didn't find this very funny. His muscles were his pride and joy, and he didn't like anybody suggesting they weren't real.

And then there was me, Edward Cullen. I was shorter and less muscled than Emmett, though I did work out regularly. I looked the least like my family members - my brother and sister both had dark hair and brown eyes, whereas my hair was an odd bronze colour and my eyes were bright green. Emmett liked to tell me that I had been switched at birth.

After waiting impatiently by the front door for fifteen minutes, Alice and Emmett came downstairs. I opened my mouth, ready to tell them to hurry the hell up, when my cell phone rang. I had an idea who it might be, but hearing her nasal voice still disappointed me.

"Hey Eddy!" Lauren cried happily over the phone. I grimaced. I must have told her a hundred times not to call me that.

"Please don't call me that," I said flatly, wishing she would juts hang up so we could leave.

"Fine," she sulked. Her bad mood lasted about half a second, and then she was squealing with happiness again. I wondered idly if she was bipolar.

"Anyways, baby, I was wondering if you could pick me up today?" she said in a sickly sweet voice. I panicked, looking to Alice and Emmett for support.

'Help me!" I mouthed to them while gesturing towards the phone.

"Is it Lauren again?" asked Alice sympathetically. Emmett, on the other hand, simply roared with laughter. Alice shot him a reprimanding look before reaching out to take the phone from me. I handed it over without hesitation.

"Lauren? Hi, this is Alice," Alice said calmly. She was silent for a moment as she listened to Lauren's request for me to drive her to school.

"Actually, no, that's not possible today. He's driving me, Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie," Alice lied easily.

"Alright. Bye Lauren," Alice hung up before Lauren could say anything else, then handed me back my phone. Emmett was still howling with laughter. I glared at him.

We were silent until we reached my car. Alice jumped into the passenger seat, forcing Emmett to squeeze into the back. After a while, Alice turned to me.

"Edward, you really have to do something about her. It's not nice to lead girls on," her voice was soft, but I could detect a slight edge of authority in it. I sighed before responding.

"I know. Trust me, I've been trying. She just won't take a hint," In the backseat Emmett chuckled, and Alice reached back and smacked him across the head.

"Do Jasper and Rosalie know that they're being picked up?" I asked. It _was_ a bit last minute.

"Of course they do. I texted Jasper before we left," said Alice, smiling serenely. I was used to this kind of behavior whenever Jasper, her longtime boyfriend and one of my own best friends, was mentioned. Like Emmett and Rosalie, they had been together for as long as anyone could remember, and they were completely perfect for each other.

I sighed inwardly. It was a bit tiresome after awhile, being the only one of my five favorite people without a soul mate. Though I would never tell them that – it would only give Alice the impression that it was her job to play matchmaker.

Finally we pulled up to the Hale's house. Jasper and Rosalie were waiting for us outside, and jumped in the car as soon as we stopped. I looked at them briefly before they climbed into the back seat with Emmett. They were both tall, blonde, and good-looking. Extremely so, in Rosalie's case. People often though that since I was the school player and she was the best-looking girl in school, we had hooked up on atleast one occasion, but this wasn't true. I only loved her like a sister.

After picking up Jasper and Rosalie, I sped to school, breaking the speed limit by about 60 kilometers per hour. Due to my fast driving, we reached school with plenty of time to spare. I parked my Volvo, and then headed quickly for my first class, along with my siblings and friends, not wanting to linger in the parking lot.

The first half of my day passed easily. I had all my classes with either Alice, Emmett, Jasper or Rosalie, and the work so far was a piece of cake. To my delight, out of the first four periods I had none with Lauren, so I was in a very good mood when lunch came around.

I walked into the crowded cafeteria, joking and laughing with Jasper and Emmett. The majority of the girls turned to stare at us with what could only be described as longing as we walked by. Finally we reached our table. It was the farthest from the door, in the opposite corner. I had just settled down to eat my lunch with Jasper, Emmett and a couple of guys from the football team (did I mention I was on the football team? Well, I did now) when I heard a girly squeal from behind me.

I turned half-heartedly, already knowing the only human who can make such a high-pitched noise. I was right – Lauren was walking towards our table, along with Alice, Rosalie and a couple other cheerleaders.

The rest of lunch passed sluggishly, as I tried my best to tune Lauren out. I looked around my table in a futile attempt to shut her up. Emmett and Rosalie were making out. That seemed to be all they did nowadays. Lauren beside me was, of course, still trying desperately to recapture my attention. Alice, who was sitting on the other side of Lauren seemed to be glaring at the other girls at the table (with the exception of Rosalie). That was strange – Alice was usually impossible to upset. Jasper sat across from her, trying to lift her from her subdued mood. I didn't bother examining anybody else at the table; I didn't care about any of them.

As soon as the bell rang, I rushed out to my next class, Biology – the only class I had with none of my friends. I was one of the first ones there, due to my quick exit from the cafeteria. I quickly grabbed a seat in the middle of the classroom and dumped my stuff.

I sat quietly in my seat as the other students began to arrive. A couple of girls asked to have the seat beside me but I lied politely and told them it was reserved. I didn't really want to have somebody staring at me through the whole class. Finally the teacher came in, and I relaxed. Nobody had taken the seat next to me.

Unfortunately, I seemed to have spoken too soon, for a minute or so later the door opened again. I didn't turn – I didn't particularly care who had just come in late. I found myself eating my words, however, when I saw who it was in my peripheral vision, as she made her way to the front of the class to talk to the teacher.

I almost gasped. She had dark brown hair, full lips. She was short – mind you, not as short as Alice – about 5'4, and slim. She was completely gorgeous. I only felt more attracted to her when she turned around, saw the students watching her, and blushed a deep crimson. She walked slowly towards me, and it took me half a second to realize that the seat beside me was hers. Yes! I couldn't believe how lucky I was.

To my surprise, when she reached our desks, instead of smothering me with winks and flirting, she completely ignored me. Strange – maybe she was playing hard to get? Regardless of what she was doing, I knew I had to talk to her.

"Hello," I said quietly, not wanting the teacher to hear. When she heard my voice she looked at me for the first time, and once again I had to hold back a gasp. Though I hadn't been able to see it from across the room, her eyes were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. They were brown, but not the usual flat brown. Hers seemed to go on forever, and I quickly found myself getting lost in them.

"Hi," she stuttered after a moment.

"I'm Edward Cullen," I introduced myself, hoping she would take the hint and do the same. I needed a name to put with this lovely being.

"Bella," she said, rather flatly, turning to face the front. I chuckled slightly. Her ignorance towards me seemed very forced.

Through the rest of the lesson I could do nothing other than watch her. I couldn't help but wonder if her pale skin was as smooth as it looked, what her lips felt like to kiss, what it would feel like to hold her.

About halfway through the lesson she looked over at me, in what was clearly supposed to be an inconspicuous way. When she realized I was staring at her, she blushed again and turned her head. I chuckled again – why was he so determined to ignore me?

At first I was certain she – Bella – was only playing hard to get, but by the end of the period, I wasn't so sure. I had tried a dozen times to start a conversation with her, but every time I would open my mouth, she'd given me a death glare. I took instead to staring at the teacher, and only peeking at her when I was sure she wasn't looking. I faked a smirk, but I was seriously beginning to wonder if she hated me.

Finally, the bell rang. I was about to try speaking to her again, when I heard the most dreaded voice on the planet.

"Eddy!" Lauren cried, jumping on my back and covering my eyes with her hands. I debated throwing her across the room.

"Guess who, Eddy," She whispered in my ear. I fought back a shudder. Then, beside me, I heard a snort of laughter, reminding me that Bella was standing there, witnessing all this. It enraged me.

"Hello Lauren," I said, trying and failing to keep the annoyance from leaking into my voice. She finally uncovered my eyes, and I heard Bella snort again. Why, _why_ did she have to see that? And now she was laughing at me! Was it really not obvious how much a detested Lauren?

I glared at Bella, daring her to laugh at me again. Instead, she smiled angelically and ran from the room, still giggling.

Great – the one and only time I find a girl I actually want to be with, and not just to hook up with, and she seemingly hates me. I'll give it a couple of days, I thought to myself, and if she still doesn't show any interest then I'll treat her the same way she's treating me – like I don't exist.


	4. Chapter 4

Read;

Okay, here's another chapter for you guys. Sorry, it's kind of a filler chapter - I realized they didn't hate each other enough for any serious drama yet.

I should have this chapter in Edward's point of view up sometimebefore midnight tonight- I just have to add the finishing touches to it. And I _know _this chapter's short - sorry! Edward's point of view will be longer, as will future chapters.

Oh, and one more thing - sorry about the unoriginal chapter name. I'm feeling a little low on creativity at the moment.

With that said, enjoy!

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BPOV

After my first day of school at Forks High, I wanted nothing more than to go home. After biology, nothing of interest had happened, other than me hitting Mike in the face with a soccer ball during gym. Accidentally, of course.

As soon as the last bell rang and I had changed out of my gym clothes, I raced to the parking lot and hopped into my car before any of my annoying followers (cough Mike) had a chance to corner me.

I was about to turn my truck on and leave when I saw Edward and his friends walking towards the silver Volvo not three cars away from me. Figures the nicest looking boy would have the nicest looking car. Damn it, what is _wrong _with me?

I sat quietly, watching them from my rear-view mirror. I knew it would be embarrassing if I was caught staring, but I couldn't help myself.

I watched as Edward, a huge, muscled boy with curly hair, a tall blond boy, the short, pixie-like girl I had noticed at lunch, an extremely pretty Blondie girl and Lauren from biology made their way towards the car. They stopped to talk for a minute, then the big muscled boy let out a thunderous laugh that I could hear even from inside my truck. He and everybody except Edward and Lauren then got in the car.

They seemed to be talking animatedly for a minute, until Lauren leaned forward, as if to kiss him. Edward shook his head briskly, and then gently shoved her away. I couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Lauren's face. She then stalked away, but not before yelling something that sounded suspiciously like 'You Bastard!'. I snorted again, and was just about to put the key in the ignition when Edward's head turned in my direction.

I froze, still looking in the rear-view mirror. In the half-second we made eye contact, I felt a strange electric current shoot through me, then it was over as quickly as it had come. I immediately felt my face begin to burn as I realized he had caught me watching him. I hoped he wouldn't get the wrong impression – I was merely interested in what he was saying to Lauren. It had absolutely nothing to do with _him_. I quickly turned the key and sped out of the parking lot, afraid to make eye contact with him again.

As soon as I got home, I began making dinner. The meal I had chosen didn't require much concentration, so I let my mind wander while I worked.

It was easier now that I was alone to think clearly. I decided once and for all that I didn't, and never would, like Edward Cullen. To make this more final, I decided to make a list of all his flaws.

Well, firstly, he was a player. If his looks hadn't given that away, then the fact that he had girls jumping all over him sure did. Being a player, he was probably conceited, and stupid, like any other playboy.

I repeated that whenever my mind dared to wander to him – stupid, conceited player, stupid, conceited player. The result was that by the end of the night, I had managed to convince myself that I hated Edward Cullen.

The next morning I was awoken once again by my radio, but this time I had the sense to not roll off the bed. I took my time showering, getting dressed, and eating breakfast so that I wouldn't be too early for school.

Actually, I took a bit too much time – I only just made it into class on time. I sat down, preparing myself for another boring English class, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned in my seat, wondering who hadn't gotten the message yesterday that I wanted to be left alone.

To my surprise, it was the short girl with spiky black hair that I had seen with Edward on several occasions. I hadn't noticed yesterday that she was in this class.

"Hello," she said, smiling kindly at me. I was reminded forcibly of Edward's greeting the day before.

"Hi," I replied, trying not to reveal my surprise that she was speaking to me.

"I," she said, still smiling, "am Alice Cullen. You're Bella Swan, right?" I gaped at her for a moment. Cullen? As in Edward's –

"Yes, I'm Edward's sister if that's what you were wondering," she answered my unasked question. I blushed.

"How did you know my name?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

She smirked slightly before responding, "Well, everyone knew the Chief's daughter was moving here, and seeing as you're the only new girl, I assumed it was you. But other than that, Edward mentioned you yesterday,"

I stared at her. He had mentioned me? The thought gave me butterflies. Wait, why did I care? I hated him. He probably just told Alice how much of an ass hole I am.

"Ms. Swan! Ms. Cullen! Please keep your attention on me, not each other," said the teacher sternly. I blushed again, and Alice leaned back in her seat. She didn't speak to me again.

Other than my little chat with Alice Cullen, my first four periods were completely uneventful. During lunch I sat with Jessica and her friends again, and contemplated shooting myself out of sheer boredom.

"Bella," Jessica turned to me about halfway through lunch, "which of these colours looks best with my complekon?" she asked, holding up two hideous tubes of lip gloss in varying shades of pink.

"Um, 'complekon'? Don't you mean 'complexion'?" I stared at her, aghast. How could anybody be so _stupid?_

Before she could say another word, I stood up and I rushed off to Biology. Just being with Jessica had made my IQ drop by ten points.

Due to the fact that it was still lunch, when I reached the classroom, it was completely empty. I sat down and pulled out my ipod, deciding I might as well enjoy my time alone. I put in my earphones, closed my eyes and listened to the throbbing bass and shrieking vocals of Linkin Park.

I must have had the volume up pretty loud, because I only realized I was no longer alone when I felt a tap on my arm. Keeping my eyes closed, I pulled out the earphones and was about to tell whoever it was to go to hell when a velvety voice interrupted me.

"You listen to Linkin Park?" My eyes snapped open to see Edward Cullen sitting beside me, examining the 'Now Playing' screen on my red ipod. I had to struggle for a moment to regain enough composure to speak. For some reason, his presence had kicked my heart into overdrive.

"Yes, I do. Do you have a problem with that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as flat and expressionless as possible. He set my ipod down carefully and turned to look at me, a frown on his perfect face.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you. Did I do something wrong? Was I rude to you? If I was I assure you it wasn't intentional. Why don't you like me?" his bright green eyes bore into mine, searching for an answer.

"I… look, I just don't like you. I'm sure it comes as a shock to someone like you, that a girl isn't begging you to get in her pants," I said with as much venom as I could muster. He looked shocked for a moment, then his expression turned angry.

"How can you even _say_ that? You don't even know me!" he was livid now.

"Am I wrong? So you haven't gotten with every girl in school? So I'm _not_ the first one to _not_ be attracted to you?" I challenged. He glared at me for a while longer, then turned away from me, scowling.

"I didn't think so," I muttered smugly. He ignored me.

We didn't speak for the rest for the class. When the bell rang, he was up and out of the room before I had even begun to gather my belongings.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Before I knew it, I was suddenly sitting in my truck, about to leave. I glanced in my rear-view mirror, and just like the day before, saw Edward, Alice, Lauren, the muscled boy and blond boy and girl walking to the Volvo.

I paid closest attention to Edward and Lauren, hoping that he would tell her off again. To my surprise, when she leaned in to kiss him, instead of pushing her away like he had yesterday, he kissed her back.

It was no peck-on-the-cheek, either – they were basically going all the way in the middle of the parking lot. For some reason, this made me angry. I decided it was because he had seemingly broken up with her yesterday, and now they were making out again – it only showed that he couldn't stick to a decision.

Finally they stopped kissing, and Lauren ran off to her own car. Several things happened at once after she left.

Edward Cullen looked directly at me, smirking hugely. Once again our eyes met in the rear-view mirror, and once again I felt the electric shock, only much stronger this time. I'm guessing he felt it as well, because his smug expression suddenly turned to one of surprise, and he took a step back.

This time I wasn't the one who had to flee. As soon as our strange connection was broken he jumped into the Volvo and sped out of the parking lot at at least twice the legal limit.

A few minutes later, once I had controlled my shaking hands, I followed suit and sped from the parking lot. What on earth was going on between me and Cullen? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.


	5. Chapter 4, EPOV

Well here it is, as promised - chapter four in Edward's point of view. And, also as promised, it's a hell of a lot longer (eight pages!). Um, sorry if I use some not-so-nice language.

Sorry if there are some spelling/grammar errors - I didn't really edit it. I'm lazy.

Oh, and thank you all so much for the reviews, alerts, and favourites! You all make me happy )

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EPOV

Biology had left me with a lot to think about. Not only about the beautiful girl who apparently couldn't stand me – also about how I desperately needed to get rid of Lauren.

I spent my last period trying to work out a suitable way to break up with her, and after discussing it with Jasper, decided to do it after school – the sooner the better.

By the time school ended, I was a bit nervous. Usually breaking up didn't bother me – I had had more then enough practice. But for some reason, I had a feeling that this wouldnve, world's" / 't go very smoothly.

Of course I had already told my friends and family what I was going to do, and since none of them liked Lauren at all, they weren't particularly disappointed to see the end of our relationship. In fact, they were practically jumping for joy.

I walked with Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rosalie to the parking lot. Once we were beside my Volvo, I heard a nasal voice calling my name and turned to see Lauren running towards us.

"Hey everyone!" she screeched happily. She was answered by an unenthusiastic chorus of "hey".

"Oh Eddy," she purred, touching my forearm with her stubby finger, "what do you want to do tonight?"

Emmett let out a booming laugh that echoed through the parking lot. Rose shot him an evil look a gestured to the car. Looking slightly scared of her, Emmett followed Rosalie into the backseat, followed quickly by Jasper and Alice, the latter who threw me a thumbs up before getting into the passenger seat.

I turned to Lauren, wondering how I should word this. I decided to be blunt and to-the-point. Not exactly Mr. Sympathetic, but I figured a clean break with Lauren would be best.

"Lauren," I began slowly, "I think… I think we should break-up."

She stared at me stupidly for a moment, then to my surprise, she grinned.

"Oh, very funny Eddy-Poo. Now, seriously, what do you want to do tonight?"

She leaned towards me, puckering her lips. I shoved her away as gently as I could manage. This was going to be harder than I had anticipated.

"Lauren, this isn't a joke. I think it would be better if we were just… just not together," I had been on the verge of saying 'just friends' but due to the fact that I didn't want _any _kind of relationship with her, I had stopped myself.

She gasped.

"You're… you're breaking up with me?! No! How could you! I can't believe this! You're joking. You're joking, aren't you?" I stared at her and shook my head slowly.

"No! You can't… you… You BASTARD!" she sobbed. With that, the turned and stormed away.

I took a deep breathe. That hadn't been the smoothest breakup, but atleast it was over with now. I unconsciously glanced around the parking lot, and to my surprise, saw two big brown eyes staring at me from the rear-view mirror of a red truck that was parked a space across from me. I instinctively knew they belonged to Bella Swan.

We made eye contact, and I felt a strange electric shock. I wondered if she had felt it too – she must have, because her eyes widened in surprise, and then she quickly looked away, turning on her truck as she did so.

I stayed rooted to the spot as she sped out of the parking lot without sparing me another glance. Eventually Emmett opened the window and threatened to paint the Volvo pink if I didn't take them home.

I remained quiet while I dropped Jasper and Rosalie off and drove home, replaying the disastrous breakup with Lauren and the strange look I shared with Bella over and over again in my head. Emmett remained completely oblivious to my occupation, but Alice, so much more observant than my brother, realized something was wrong. The moment we entered the house she ambushed me.

"Edward, I know something's up so don't even try to hide it," she glared at me, daring me to lie.

"Fine, Alice. It's just Lauren – as I'm sure you heard, the breakup didn't go very smoothly," it wasn't technically a lie – it just wasn't the whole truth.

"And what else?" she asked, glaring at me. Damn. She was too good.

"I don't know what you mean," I said, feigning innocence. She rolled her eyes.

"I know Lauren isn't the only thing on your mind. For one thing, you break up with girls every other day, and this isn't the first time it's turned sour. And another, I know you can't stand her almost as much as the rest of us, so no matter how badly it went, you should still be happy she's gone. Not all moody and brooding like you are now," Alice stated impressively. I sighed. She knew me too well.

"Fine Alice. But I swear if you tell anybody, and that includes Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, I will burn all your shoes," I gave her a hard glare before continuing to let her know I was dead serious. She nodded in assent.

"Well it's this… girl," I struggled with the word. 'Girl' didn't even begin to cover the mysterious and intriguing creature that was Bella Swan. Alice nodded encouragingly.

"Well, her name's Bella Swan. You know, the Chief's daughter. And she's… different. In a good way. She's mysterious and outspoken and smart –," I stopped myself before I got too out of hand with my flattery. Alice misinterpreted my pause, thinking I was done speaking.

"So, you like her then? That doesn't explain why you've been so moody," I was shaking my head before she had even finished speaking.

"I don't like her," I said flatly. Alice laughed before responding.

"You're a terrible liar, Edward Cullen. Besides, she sounds nice. Unlike the usual tramps you date. What's the problem?"

"Well… I don't think I'm the one with the problem. She seems… well, I don't think she likes me. At all," I said, looking at my feet.

"Edward, I'm sure that's not true. Why wouldnve, world's" / 't she like you? She doesn't even know you! You're probably just being paranoid," Alice assured me kindly. I rolled my eyes.

"You weren't there – I could tell. Every time I tried to make conversation she _glared _at me! It was…," I shook my head sadly, unable to finish my sentence.

"Alright, I believe you, oh Brother Dear. Do you want me to talk to her? I'm pretty sure we have English Literature together," she smiled impishly upon seeing the look of horror that appeared on my face.

"No, no! Alice, you promised you wouldnve, world's" / 't say anything about this to _anyone!_ And that means _especially_ Bella Swan. Do you understand?"

I spent the rest of the night begging Alice to not speak to Bella. How desperate would I look, if she found out I had been discussing her with my sister a mere day after we'd met? Unfortunately Alice, being the stubborn ass she was, refused to promise me anything. By eleven o'clock I had given up and retreated to my room.

Deciding that I had spent enough time thinking about Bella today, I put on to some music to take my mind off of her. I put on Debussy and flopped onto my bed. Though I didn't realize it, I must have been tired, because I was asleep before the end of the first song.

"Edward! EDWARD!" somebody was banging on my bedroom door. I groaned, pulling my pillow over my head in a futile attempt to shut out the noise. Suddenly the door flew open and before I had time to react, Emmett was standing over me, wrenching the pillow from my grip.

"What do you _want_, Emmett?" I moaned, still half asleep.

"C'mon Sleeping Beauty, we're late! We have ten minutes 'til we have to be at school," he boomed in my ear. After a lot more yelling and several punches I crawled out of bed and got ready. I didn't rush, really – I knew my fast driving would be enough to get us to school on time.

I was right. By the time we got to school, this first bell hadn't even rang yet. I made my way with Emmett to our shared first class, Spanish. **A/N Bear with me, I'm just making up Edward's schedule as I go along. **

The teacher began the lesson almost as soon as Emmett and I walked in the room. For this I was grateful – I could feel the eyes of half a dozen girls watching my every move, and was glad they wouldnve, world's" / 't have a chance to ambush me before class. After class, unfortunately, was a different story.

The second the bell rang I was surrounded.

"Is it true you broke up with Lauren?" asked Jessica, trying to be flirtatious.

"Are you busy this weekend?" that was Carol.

"Hey Edward! Are you taking anyone to the dance next weekend? You know, _I'm _free…" Amanda trailed off suggestively.

I finally managed to shake them off by making up some lie about not wanting to be late for gym. Truthfully, it wouldnve, world's" / 't have mattered – since I was pretty good at sports, the coach seemed to like me, and would let me get away with murder.

That was basically how the first half of my day – of every day – passed. Avoiding girls, rushing to class. Avoiding more girls. It was always a relief to reach the cafeteria where I could just talk with my friends, and today more so than usual. Maybe because the one girl I actually wanted to talk with I hadn't so much as seen all day.

Other than the peace, today I had another reason to want to get to lunch – to talk with Alice. I hadn't managed to get a straight answer out of her last night about whether or not she was going to talk to Bella, and the tension seemed to be gnawing through my insides.

So it was to my extreme disappointment when I saw that she wasn't there. I was told by Emmett that her and Jasper were off making out on a janitor's closet. My mood instantly darkened. Emmett and Rosalie were thoroughly distracted by each other, leaving me with nobody to talk to other than the cheerleaders, and I'd rather chew tinfoil than attempt to engage one of them in an intellectual conversation. Instead I scanned the lunchroom, and though I hadn't been consciously looking for her, found Bella Swan.

She was sitting with Jessica, Mike, Tyler, and a couple other people. I scowled at her company – they were the biggest idiots I had ever met. I was pleased to see that she seemed to share my feelings towards them. She was staring at Jessica as though she were a complete airhead. Which, I reminded myself, she was.

As I watched Bella stood quickly, and without sparing her neighbours a glance, strode out of the cafeteria. I sat there, debating heatedly with myself. Should I follow her? No, that would make me seem like some deranged stalker. Well, where was she going? Maybe I could just show up, in an accidentally-on purpose kind of way.

I finally decided I would just head to Biology, and hope that was where she was. Maybe we could finally talk and I could figure out why seemed to dislike me.

I stood up, not bothering to tell anyone where I was going. The only people who I cared about enough to tell were more than a bit occupied. I left the cafeteria quickly, hoping that none of my fan girls would follow me. I was glad to see that none did.

Once I reached the Biology class, I cautiously opened the door and peered in. I smiled slightly when I saw that I had been right – Bella Swan was sitting quietly at her desk, apparently unaware of my presence.

At first I thought she was just ignoring me, but upon approaching her, I realized she had her eyes closed and earphones in. On a whim, I sat down and picked up her ipod, wondering what type of music she listened to. I was surprised to see Given Up by Linkin Park was the song that was playing – I loved them, but hadn't expected her to enjoy that type of music. She truly amazed me.

I decided to alert her to my presence, and prodded her gently on the arm. Her peaceful face looked suddenly surly. She pulled out her earphones, though her eyes remained closed.

"You listen to Linkin Park?" I asked. When she heard my voice her eyes snapped open. She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, and I found myself hoping that for once she might respond normally, without scowling or glaring. Of course she proved me wrong.

"Yes, I do. Do you have a problem with that?" she snapped. I suddenly felt angry. Why, why did she hate me? I had done nothing to her! Or had I? Maybe I had accidentally offended her? I needed to find out.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you. Did I do something wrong? Was I rude to you? If I was I assure you it wasn't intentional. Why don't you like me?" I stared deep into her bottomless brown eyes, begging her silently for an answer.

"I… look, I just don't like you. I'm sure it comes as a shock to someone like you, that a girl isn't begging you to get in her pants," she said harshly, looking away. Now I was definitely mad – I could the anger boiling in my throat. The fact that she was completely right only made everything ten times worse.

"How can you even _say_ that? You don't even know me!" I snarled.

"Am I wrong? So you haven't gotten with every girl in school? So I'm _not_ the first one to _not_ be attracted to you?" she said coldly, turning to glare at me again. I couldn't deny it, and she knew it, so I remained silent, glaring straight ahead.

"I didn't think so," I heard her mutter smugly from beside me. I ignored her, continuing to scowl at the blackboard.

We didn't speak a word to each other for the rest of the lesson. Finally the bell rang, and I grabbed my stuff and ran from the room before anybody else had moved.

I spent the last period of the day, Trigonometry, fuming about Bella. She hated me for no reason. No reason at all! She had even _admitted_ that there was no reason for her to not like me! I couldn't believe she said that to me.

Suddenly, about halfway through the period, I was hit with a forceful urge to do something to get her back. Anything. I looked around the room, as though doing so would suddenly give me an idea. And, to my surprise, it did. The idea came in the form of a too-skinny, bleached blonde tramp named Lauren Mallory, who was currently blowing kisses at me from across the room.

I smiled evilly as I formed my plan. It was more of a test, really – to see if Bella was being honest when she said she hated me. I vile, degrading test – but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Deciding I might as well put my plan into action as quickly as possible, I looked directly at Lauren and winked. She gasped, then began batting her eyelashes and licking her lips. I held back a gag. If this was going to work, I had to atleast _pretend_ to like her.

I spent the rest of the class fighting back vomit while I continued to flirt shamelessly with Lauren, and she continued to act more and more like a slut. Finally the bell rang, and just as I knew she would, Lauren ran over to my desk.

"Hey Eddy," she licked her lips again, leaning forwards on my desk so that her cleavage became more pronounced.

"Hey, Lauren," I smiled cheekily, keeping up the façade perfectly. She giggled and allowed me to place a hand around her waist and escort her to my car. Along the way we met up with Alice, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie, who eyed me company with obvious disgust, and gave me murderous glares.

When we reached the Volvo, everyone stood outside chattering for a while. I took the chance to scan the parking lot for Bella's truck, and found it (to my pleasure) in the exact same spot it had been yesterday.

I kept everyone outside talking until I finally saw Bella get in her truck. Time for the next part of my plan.

"Lauren, I'm sorry, but I can't drive you home today. My cars full," I smiled crookedly at her and looked her deep into her eyes. I was pleased to see them glaze over. The rest of my friends and family, obviously disgusted by my flirting, quickly got in the Volvo.

"That's alright Eddy. But since you can't drive me, I think you should do something else for me instead," she winked at me. I smiled, knowing where this was going, and glad that I wouldnve, world's" / 't have to be the one to suggest it.

"Anything you want," I whispered suggestively. This time while her eyes glazed over I looked in the direction of Bella's truck, praying she hadn't left. To my relief, she was still there, watching us. I quickly looked back to Lauren.

"Kiss me," Lauren purred. I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself to kiss this vile creature. I closed my eyes, pulled her close and did what I do best (not to be cocky, of course).

The kiss was long, and intense. I had to constantly fight the urge to pull away, not wanting it to look fake. Finally I let myself break away.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she gasped, giggling, before running off to her car. I took a deep breath, trying to rid myself of the terrible taste of Lauren Mallory, before turning slowly to face Bella.

She was staring, her mouth slightly open, her eyes wide with shock and not quite looking at my face. I smirked. She seemed to be really affected by the kiss… jealous? I felt my smirk become more pronounced. This basically proved what I had been hoping - she _didn't _hate me. Well, not completely, anyways.

Suddenly her eyes snapped to my face. We made eye contact, and for the second time, I felt the electric current shoot through me. This time, however, it was much stronger. The shock of it caused me to take a step back in surprise, breaking my eye contact with Bella.

The second she released me from her gaze, I fled like the coward I was. Only when I leapt into the silent Volvo did I realize I was panting loudly, and that it had nothing to do with my kiss with Lauren.

"Um, are you okay?" Jasper asked cautiously, as I revved the engine and tore out of the parking lot.

"No," I growled, not meeting their gaze.

"Dude! What the hell! I thought you were done with Lauren!" Emmett roared suddenly from the back seat.

"This has nothing to do with Lauren, does it?" Alice said quietly, looking directly at me. I avoided her gaze, blushing slightly. The car was suddenly deathly silent.

"This is about Bella Swan," she continued. It wasn't a question.

"You like the new chick?" asked Emmett.

"This is not about Bella. This will never be about Bella," I tightened my hands on the steering wheel to keep them from visibly shaking.

"Why not?" asked Alice. She almost sounded sad.

"She hates me. I hate her," my voice was a flat monotone. They didn't contradict me, but I could see the doubt in their eyes.

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A/N I know that's a crappy ending to this chapter. Sorry - I just wanted to get it posted. 


	6. Cullens And Hales

Yay, new chapter. Sorry it took awhile - I've been juggling a lot lately.

Anyways, enjoy and review!

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BPOV

When I got home, I was useless. I had banned myself from thinking about Edward, and could find nothing productive to do, so I moped around the house until nine o'clock when I finally just decided to just go to sleep.

I brushed my teeth and pulled on some sweatpants and an old green day shirt before crawling into bed.

Even though it was early, I fell asleep in record time. And, for the first time while living in Forks, I had a nightmare.

It was a strange nightmare. I was wandering aimlessly through the green forests of Forks. It was eerily silent. Suddenly, I saw Alice Cullen a few feet ahead of me.

"Bella!" she had called, beckoning me forwards with her index finger, "Come here, I have something to show you."

I was instantly at her side.

"What is it?" I asked. She said nothing, only pointed a few feet ahead of me. I looked and saw Lauren Mallory standing there, grinning evilly. She was holding something in her hand, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"Bella," Lauren had called, "What do you think about this?" And suddenly I had been able to recognize the object in her hand – it was Edward's head.

I had woken up screaming.

"Bells?" my bedroom door flew open to reveal Charlie, looking terrified. 

"Cha-Dad, I'm fine. Sorry – I had a bad dream," I said, blushing. Talking (and screaming) in my sleep was another one of my annoying traits.

"My god, Bells. I thought somebody was strangling you," said Charlie. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Only once he was completely convinced I was alright did he finally leave me alone to get ready.

I was still a bit tense from the dream, so I decided to have a shower to calm myself down. I took my time, enjoying the feel of the warm water. By the time I was out Charlie had left for the Police Station.

While making myself a quick breakfast, I began to think about what had happened. Not the nightmare – I was relatively used to them. What was bothering me was my reaction.

Only once before had I woken up screaming – it had been the night I dreamt my family and friends had been killed. I had been eight. Never again since that night had I screamed aloud, even when I dreamt I was being eaten, beheaded, tortured, drowned, and various other unpleasant things. So why was this dream different? It wasn't even that scary.

In fact, the only mildly gruesome aspect of it was Edward Cullen's detached head. But why would that even bother me? After a few more minutes I gave up analyzing my dream. I pulled on my jacket and left the house.

Once outside, I looked up at the sky. It wasn't raining, but it would be soon – the clouds were black as night. I didn't have an umbrella so I could only pray that I would be inside the school by the time the floodgates opened. 

I drove quickly, but not quickly enough. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, it began to rain. I groaned. Now I would be soaking wet for the rest of the day. I took the only remaining parking place, and prepared to make a run for it. I had barely gotten out of my truck when I heard a voice from behind me.

"Bella! Over here!" I turned to see Alice Cullen standing two cars down from me, waving me over. Before I could take so much as a half step in her direction she had run over to me.

"Hi Alice," I said when she approached. My teeth were chattering from the cool water that was running down my back and soaking my hair.

"Hey! I saw you didn't have an umbrella, so I figured we could share, if you want," she smiled, whipping out a big black umbrella from behind her back as she spoke. I had been about to question her sanity – we had only spoken once before, and now she was acting as though we were best friends – but when I saw the umbrella I really didn't care what her motivation was. I just wanted to stay dry.

"Thank you so much! I didn't really want to spend the rest of the day looking like a drowned cat," I smiled. We walked together to our first class, talking and laughing as though we had known each other for years. I couldn't believe how easy she was to get along with – I could definitely see us becoming friends. 

"So," said Alice, continuing our chatting after English class was over, "you should sit with us at lunch."

I hesitated a moment. Sitting with Alice would mean sitting with Edward… but it was either that or sit with Jessica again. I almost shuddered at the thought.

"Alright. Sounds good," I smiled. She jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"Yay! I wasn't sure if I should ask, because I know you hate Edward, but I'm glad I did!" she beamed at me. I blanched.

"How did…?" I stared at her. The fact that I hated her brother didn't seem to bother her at all. She laughed her bell-like laugh before responding.

"Edward told me everything. I can get anything out of him. It's a talent," she said, smiling.

"So…it doesn't bother you…?" I asked hopefully. So far, Alice was the only person at Forks High whose company I actually enjoyed – I hoped this wouldn't get in the way of our friendship.

"Of course I don't mind! It's about time he got a good verbal slap in the face," she said, and there was no trace of dishonesty in her brown eyes.

The next two periods after our little chat, trigonometry and Spanish, passed in a blur. To say I was nervous to be sitting at Alice's table at lunch was an understatement – I was practically terrified.

I was glad to see Alice waiting for me outside my Spanish classroom when the lunch bell rang, so that I wouldn't have to walk over to her table alone. We continued talking as though we were old friends.

Only when we approached Alice's table did things get awkward.

Everyone at the table turned to welcome Alice as she sat down, but their greeting froze on their lips when they saw me follow suite.

"Everyone," Alice said clearly, breaking the awkward silence, "This is Bella Swan. I invited her to sit with us."

There was a wide range of emotions playing across the faces of those at the table – surprise, excitement, amusement, and in Lauren's case, fury. I stared at her for a moment, wondering why she seemed to hate me, when a deep voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Bella? Hey. I'm Emmett. Emmett Cullen," I turned to see the muscled boy with curly black hair whom I had seen him several times with Alice and Edward, grinning at me. It was hard to believe he was related to tiny Alice – he was huge.

"Hello Emmett," I said easily, grinning back. He seemed very friendly.

"This is my girlfriend, Rosalie Hale," said Emmett, nodding to his left. I had to lean sideways to see who he was referring to because Emmett's bulk blocked her from view. It was the gorgeous blonde girl.

"Hi," I said, feeling slightly nervous. She just nodded, but smiled warmly.

"And this," Alice said, jumping into our conversation, "is Jasper. Rosalie's brother."

I looked over to see the tall blonde boy, sitting across the table from Alice. They were holding hands across the table.

"Hello Bella," he said politely. I smiled.

"Hey Jasper."

"And of course you've already met Edward and Lauren," Alice said flatly, giving the two hard looks. I felt my pulse accelerate slightly when I noticed Edward for the first time. He was on the other side of Lauren, leaning back in his chair so he was all but hidden from view. He gave no sign that he was aware of my presence, and I decided to follow his example.

The rest of the lunch period passed easily. I found I got along well with Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, who, other than all being exceptionally good looking, were also very nice. Edward didn't so much as look in my direction the entire time.

Unfortunately, all too soon the bell rang. Edward was up and out of the cafeteria before anybody else had moved. I hung back with Alice for a while, unwilling to walk to class with him. He was gone rather quickly though, so I didn't have to wait for long.

I arrived in Biology feeling tense. Would today hold another showdown between Edward and I? I hoped not – I didn't want something as trivial as that to jeopardize my new friendships.

I needn't have worried. Just like at lunch, Edward completely ignored me. It seemed as though he was completely oblivious to my presence, but his clenched jaw and fists gave away the façade.

When the bell rang, like in the cafeteria, he was out of the class before anybody else had moved.

The rest of the day was uneventful. When I arrived home, I cooked dinner and did my homework. I had finished everything by ten o'clock, so decided to go to bed. I could feel a tradition in the making.

The next day dawned bright and sunny. I had to pinch myself several times before I realized I wasn't dreaming, and that for the first time since I had moved here, it was sunny in Forks.

Either because of the rare sunlight, or because I'd had a good night's sleep, I was in an exceptionally good mood when I pulled into the school parking lot. I found a slot easily, and jumped out of my truck, humming Three Days Grace's I Hate Everything About You to myself.

Almost the moment I hopped out of my truck Alice was at my side.

"Hey!" she screamed in my ear, causing me to jump a foot in the air.

"Jesus, Alice! How do you pop out of thin air?" She just laughed, wiggling her eyebrows.

"What's up? Or did you just come over to scare the living daylights out of me?" I asked, beginning to walk to my next class. Alice walked with me.

"Actually, there was a reason. I was wondering if you wanted to come for a girl's night tomorrow. Friday," she smiled at me sweetly. I narrowed my eyes.

"'Girls Night'? What exactly does that involve?" I asked cautiously. She pouted – I got the feeling this was a question she would have preferred remained unasked. She quickly rearranged her facial expression into a bright smile before answering.

"Oh, you know. Movies, popcorn, gossiping…makeovers…" She mumbled the last word incoherently. 

"Er, what was that last one?" I asked suspiciously. She just shrugged and grinned.

"So, can you come?" Alice asked hopefully. I shrugged and nodded, wondering if this was a bad idea. She squealed delight before beginning to gush about how much fun we would have. She was planning on inviting Rosalie as well, which was fine with me.

Lunch that day I sat at Alice's table again. 

"Rose!" Alice called, prodding her friend in the shoulder with a Spork in a failing attempt to rouse her from her make out session with Emmett. After several more pokes, Rosalie finally pulled away from her boyfriend and glared at Alice.

"Alice, this had better be good. What do you want?" Rosalie glowered at her friend. 

"I wanted to know if you were busy tomorrow," Alice explained, "I was planning a girls night at my place. Bella's coming too."

At this statement, two sprays of juice shot across the table. It seemed that me and Edward had both spit out our beverages in disbelief. 

The girl's night was at Alice's house. Which was also Edward's house. Good lord, how could I have forgotten something like that?

"Bella's staying over at our house?" Edward said in a voice that betrayed no emotion, mirroring my thoughts.

Alice and Rosalie didn't hear him, or seem to notice our double juice spray. The moment Alice had told Rosalie the plan she had gotten over her bad mood, and the two were now happily discussing how we would spend the night.

While Alice and Rosalie were occupied, I noticed Jasper and Emmett both staring at Edward. Jasper looked sympathetic, and Emmett was grinning. Edward's face remained smooth and emotionless, though I thought I saw the slightest frown form on his face, directed at Emmett.

Before I could fully assess the situation, they all looked away.

I spent the rest of lunch pondering the strange looks the boys had shared, and nodding occasionally when Alice or Rose asked me something regarding tomorrow night. For the majority of the time I had no idea what I was agreeing to, and I was sure they would take advantage of that.

After lunch Biology passed in much the same manner as the day before –Edward pointedly ignored me, then rushed out of the classroom the moment the bell rang. 

I had just left the room when a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind the building. I could tell their grip was frail, but I was too surprised to fight back. I turned to see who was dragging me, and received a slap across the face.

It didn't hurt, but the shock of it caused me to let out a small gasp. I turned again, and this time saw my kidnapper.

Lauren Mallory.

I almost laughed when I realized who it was. I had actually been _scared _for a minute! I quickly wrenched my wrist from her grip, and placing my hands on my hips, turned to face her.

"What do you want?" I glared at her. I was glad to see her squirm under my gaze for a moment, before she managed to get a grip on herself.

"I want you," she said, taking a step towards me and poking me hard in the chest, "to stay the hell away from my Edward."

I couldn't help myself – I burst out laughing. I had been kidnapped by a no-brain cheerleader, slapped across the face and poked in the chest so that she could tell me to stay away from a boy who I obviously despised. What the hell?

I was about to tell her that there was no way I would ever try to get with Edward, when I stopped myself. She seemed seriously convinced – maybe I should have a little fun with her.

"Sorry Lauren. I can't promise anything. He is a _great_ kisser," I smirked at her before walking back the way we had come. The moment she was out of hearing distance I burst out laughing – the look on her face had been too much.

My snickering subsided quickly when I walked into the gym. Great – basketball. I could hardly walk without tripping, and these people expected me to run while dribbling a ball?

Surprisingly, by the time gym was over I had only inflicted minor damage on myself and others, so by the time I got home, I was still in a pretty good mood.

A good mood that instantly dissipated when I thought of the next day.

Alice had somehow gotten me to agree to sleepover at her house. Her house, which was also Edward's house. 

I contemplated cancelling for a few minutes, but eventually disregarded the idea. Honestly, why was I so nervous? What was the worst thing that could happen? 

The worst would be Edward and I having another screaming match. Could I deal with that? Of course I could. I'm Bella Swan for Christ's sake. And the likeliness of that happening was slim, anyways. He would probably ignore me like he had at lunch and Biology, and I would ignore him. And that's only if we even come face to face.

So it was decided – I would be spending tomorrow night at the Cullen's house. With Alice and Rosalie. And Edward.

I couldn't accurately explain to myself why that thought gave me butterflies.


	7. Playing Matchmaker

OKAY. So this is the previous chapter in our beloved Edward's point of view. Next chapter will be the sleep over - hope you guys are excited ;)

Anyways, read, review, enjoy!

* * *

EPOV

The moment we got home I headed for the stairs, intent on hiding up in my room for the rest of the night. I had barely gotten past the second step, however, when Alice spoke from behind me.

"Edward, wait," she called softly. I sighed, but didn't turn to face her.

"What, Alice?" I asked, a bit more sharply than I intended. I heard an intake of breath, probably in reaction to my harsh tone. I sighed again, but this time turned around. I didn't want Alice mad at me.

"Sorry, I'm just-"

"It's okay, Edward. Come talk to me," she turned and sat down on the couch, indicating that I should take the spot beside her. I didn't argue, just sat down obediently.

"Okay, what happened? It must have been bad if you were willing to get back with Lauren to get back at her."

"I didn't kiss Lauren for _her_," I lied. Alice rolled her eyes.

"You know you can't lie to me."

I sighed. It was true – she knew me much too well.

"Alright, fine. We… talked. In Biology. She said…" I trailed off, not wanting to revisit that particular conversation. Alice glared when she saw that I wasn't intending to continue.

"You're going to tell me sooner or later – might as well make it easier on both of us and tell me sooner."

I knew she was right. So, without further ado, I told her everything that had happened between me and Bella Swan, right up to last period, when I decided to test her hatred for me by kissing Lauren. At this point, I hesitated slightly.

"Go on," she urged, not unkindly.

"Well… I was mad. And I wanted to get back at her… I decided I wanted to know if she really hated me. So I got back with Lauren, and kissed her when I knew Bella was watching, so I could gauge her reaction," I said, bowing my head. I was ashamed of what I was willing to do for this girl.

Alice gave me a hard look.

"That," she scolded me, "was an awful thing to do. Not only did you make Lauren think you like her, you also hurt Bella's feelings."

I laughed.

"Hurt Bella's feelings? Yea, right. She has less emotions than a rock."

"You didn't see her face before you drove away. I don't believe she hates you."

I laughed again.

"You didn't hear her. The way she _spoke to me_ – she definitely hates me," I said. Alice shook her head.

"Well, when _I_ spoke to her – " my gasp cut her off.

"You _what?"_ I practically screamed. She placed a soothing hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down, Edward. I didn't say anything embarrassing. And she was nice – actually, I rather like her. And she's a much better choice than _Lauren_," she sneered her name. I sighed.

"Alice. Listen to me. We are _not_ going to be getting together. She hates me. Wait, let me finish!" I held up my hand to stop the interruption I could see forming on her lips. She crossed her arms and frowned but remained silent, so I continued:

"And don't try and play matchmaker. You wouldn't be helping anybody – you'd just be making my life more difficult than it has to be."

Her pouted as though I had just told her Christmas had been cancelled.

"Fine. I won't intervene. Much," she muttered the last word incoherently, "but I have a feeling that you two are going to end up together."

I rolled my eyes. Alice was always making 'predictions', and she had an odd habit of being right – but this time I was definitely betting against her.

"Whatever, Alice," I muttered, knowing it was best not to argue with her, "I'm going to my room."

I stood up and made my way upstairs. Once inside I collapsed on my bed, thinking about the conversation with Alice. I had a feeling that she wouldn't keep to her promise about not intervening – she loved playing matchmaker. I knew tomorrow she'd probably find as many ways as possible to get me near Bella Swan, in a (futile) attempt to get us together.

The best way to deal with this, I decided, would be to simply ignore Bella when this happened. Then maybe Alice would get the message that there was nothing, and would never be anything between Bella and I, and as a bonus I would be able to avoid another fight.

I fell asleep soon after coming to this conclusion, and the next thing I knew it was morning, and I had been awakened by the howl of the wind outside my bedroom window. I got up, stretching and yawning, and peered outside.

It was almost pitch black – we were in for a storm. I got ready quickly and, with Alice and Emmett in tow, drove off to pick up our two friends.

I drove faster than usual (which is saying a lot) in hopes of reaching the school before it began raining. It almost worked – we had parked and were heading towards the school when the first droplets came down.

I walked faster, not wanting to spend the day with wet clothes. Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and I had reached the school by the time we realized Alice wasn't with us. I looked around, panicked – where had she gotten to? The others were doing the same.

"There she is!" called Rosalie, relief colouring her tone. I looked to where she was pointing, and felt my body freeze. Alice was walking – bouncing really; not even the rain could dampen her excessively good mood – with Bella Swan.

I felt my hands begin to shake. I had expected her to play matchmaker, but come on! It wasn't even first period yet! I had anticipated a day or two to get used the idea of ignoring Bella Swan; instead, Alice had given me less than thirty minutes.

I was livid all through the first half of the day. Luckily for Alice, I had none of my first classes with her, so I had no time to tell her off for doing exactly what I had asked her not to do.

I rushed to lunch, hoping to find Alice alone. Unfortunately, everybody but Alice was already there, so I settled myself down on the other side of Lauren (who was rather annoyed by my bad mood) to wait.

"There she is," muttered Jasper, in a voice so low I had to strain my ears to hear it. I knew automatically who he meant. In less than a minute, Alice was sitting down at the table. I was about to ask for a word with her, when I saw her company.

Bella Swan.

My mouth froze up. Bella was blushing, and looked perfectly friendly – she didn't seem to have noticed me yet. I decided to keep it that way. If she couldn't see me, she couldn't make any snide remarks. I leaned back in my seat so that I was completely obscured by Lauren.

Though nobody would be able to tell from my bored expression, I was listening the conversation at the table intently. Maybe if my friends hated Bella, Alice would give up…? The first to introduce themselves was Emmett.

"Bella? Hey, I'm Emmett," he was grinning at her - he looked rather threatening. I knew this was a test – it was his way of seeing how tough somebody was. Bella didn't look the least bit nervous – in fact, I didn't even think she realized he was trying to be intimidating. She just grinned right back and said,

"Hello Emmett."

I saw Emmett's grin become more pronounced. She had passed his judgment.

"This is my girlfriend, Rosalie Hale," Emmett continued, gesturing to Rosalie. Bella had to lean to the side to see the girl who was almost completely blocked from view by Emmett's incredible amount of muscle.

"Hi," Bella said timidly. I almost laughed – she found Rosalie intimidating, but not Emmett? How odd. She seemed to relax slightly when Rosalie smiled warmly at her.

"And this," Alice said happily, "is Jasper. Rosalie's brother."

I could tell from the realization in Bella's eyes that she knew they were a couple.

"Hello Bella," Jasper said politely. He had always been the gentleman of the group.

"Hey Jasper," she smiled.

"And of course you've already met Edward and Lauren," said Alice flatly, with a look in my direction that clearly said 'act rude and die'. Following my carefully crafted plan, I let show no reaction whatsoever.

By the end of lunch I had completely lost any hope that my friends and family might not like Bella. They had spent the hour chatting like old friends. Could I not catch a break?

Finally, _finally, _the bell rang. I leapt out of my seat and rushed off to Biology without so much as a backwards glance. It had taken a surprising amount of my self-control to ignore Bella – I didn't want to slip up.

I was already at my place when I heard her enter the Biology class. Like at lunch, I completely ignored her, and she followed my lead. By the end of the class, we hadn't exchanged a single word.

I would never admit to anybody how hard that was for me.

The entire lesson I felt the strongest urge to lean over and wrap her in my arms, to kiss her – even while shooting me death glares she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. But of course I couldn't. She hated me. And things would be a lot easier on both of us if I kept those over-friendly feelings smothered.

The second the bell rang I was out of my seat, and out the door.

I spent last period just avoiding Lauren's gaze. Finally the day was over, and I rushed to find my two best friends. I desperately needed to talk to them.

I didn't have to look far – I saw Jasper and Emmett standing beside the gym, and quickly ran over to join them.

"Hey, Edward," Emmett called when he saw me approaching. I grinned and waved.

"Hey guys," I said once I had reached them.

"Hey, are you okay? You looked pretty pissed during lunch," Of course Jasper would have noticed. He was always so perceptive.

"Ya, about that. Well… It's Bella," I said slowly.

"The girl who sat with us at lunch? I liked her," Emmett grinned.

"You like her?" Jasper guessed. I sighed.

"Well… I don't know. I mean, I might, if she didn't hate me."

Emmett and Jasper stared at me.

"Er… how do you know that?" Jasper asked curiously.

"Well, I don't know," I said sarcastically, "I just assumed that when a girl practically calls you a man whore and glares at you 24/7 she doesn't like you – but maybe I'm misreading the signals – maybe that's all code for 'I love you Edward, get in my pants."

"Dude…" Emmett said sympathetically, "that's a tough break. Bad luck," he thumped me on the back in a brotherly way. I sighed.

"Sorry I snapped. She just annoys the hell out of me! She's so stuck up and _rude._ And the fact that I find her so hot only makes things worse. And not to mention Alice has now taken it upon herself to hook us up," I shook my head sadly.

"Sorry man. If there's anything we can do to help, just say so," Jasper said.

"Well… could you tell Alice to stop playing matchmaker?" I asked hopefully. Jasper just laughed.

"Nice try. Anything within reason."

Alice and Rosalie had gotten bored of waiting for us, so got a ride home with some cheerleader. I dropped the guys off then rushed home. I had a bone to pick with some black haired pixie.

"Alice!" I yelled the moment I entered the house, "Get over here!"

I had tried to make myself sound threatening but it didn't seem to have worked. She pranced over to me happily, not looking the least bit afraid.

"Yes, dear brother?" she smiled sweetly at me. I scowled.

"Don't you 'dear brother' me. Why would you _do that?_ The one thing I asked you to do, and you do the opposite!"

She just laughed.

"Don't be so uptight Edward. I asked her to sit with us because I genuinely like her. Not because somebody may or may not have told me not to. You're being a little egotistical, don't you think?" She said, still smiling. I tried to continue glowering at her, but it had no effect

"Well, atleast promise you won't do it again?" I pleaded, dropping the angry façade. She just laughed again and bounced away.

Great.

I slept fitfully that night, wondering how she planned to torture me with Bella Swan tomorrow.

Emmett, Alice and I ate breakfast together the next morning. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but it seemed to me that Alice was even more upbeat than usual – as if she had something special planned for the day.

If that was true, she said nothing of it, other than the occasional sly glance in my direction. I decided to ignore them and her; atleast until she told me what was going on.

When she left to get changed, I made the most of my alone time with Emmett.

"Hey, Emmett – do you know if Alice is planning something? She seemed very happy at breakfast. More happy than usual, and you know that's saying a lot."

Emmett shrugged, "If she is she hasn't said anything to me. And isn't that the first thing she'd do? You might just be a little nervous bro – overreacting. The world's not out to get you," he smiled. I could only manage a slight grimace.

Emmett's assurances had not erased my suspicions, which only grew when Alice leapt from the car the moment we reached the parking lot at school and rushed off.

Deciding I'd rather not know what she was up to, I made my way to my first class with Emmett. Since we were early, we decided to wait outside for a while longer.

"Uh oh. Don't look now, but here comes the she-devil," Emmett stage-whispered. I instantly snapped my head in the direction he indicated, thinking it was Bella. I couldn't help the sinking feeling I felt when I saw it was only Lauren.

"Great. She thinks we're going out again," I groaned. Emmett let out a booming laugh, but tried to pass it off as a violent sneeze when I glared at him.

"It's not funny! What am I supposed to tell her? 'Oh sorry, I never liked you – I was just using you to see if another girl would get jealous.' Emmett! What do I say?" I hissed at him, beginning to panic. She was still several feet away from us, but fast approaching.

"Calm down. Leave it to me," said Emmett. Without giving me time to disagree, he strode off to meet Lauren. I watched their conversation from afar, not wanting to reenact the last breakup with Lauren.

I watched her expression turn from one of confusion to one of fury. She looked even more pissed than the first time – I wondered what Emmett was saying to her.

Less than a minute later, Lauren ran off, her face red with fury, and Emmett strode back over to where I stood, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"What the _hell_ did you say to her? I've never seen anybody that red in the face," I asked in horror once he reached me. He just grinned easily.

"C'mon. Does it matter what I said? I think you should just thank me and forget it," he said, a sudden not of nervousness in his voice.

"Emmett," I warned. I was getting suspicious – it would me more like Emmett to come over with a word-by-word recount of his brilliant dumping than try to avoid telling the story.

"Fine, fine," he said, rolling his eyes, "I just told her…well, I told her you and Bella were dating."

I stared at him for a full ten seconds, expecting him to grin widely and yell 'Gotcha!'. Of course that didn't happen.

"You…You…N-…Ugh…" was all I managed to stutter. Emmett began to look seriously worried.

"Um, are you okay? Do you need to go the nurse?" he asked cautiously. It was at this point that I finally found my voice.

"EMMETT!" I roared. My booming voice caused him to jump a foot in the air, "IF ANYONE NEEDS TO SEE THE NURSE IT WOULD BE _YOU!_ WHY WOULD YOU _SAY _THAT? WHAT ARE YOU _SMOKING?_ I CAN'T _BELIEVE _YOU!"

I continued screaming and swearing at him until I was out of breath, and even then I didn't stop glaring daggers at him.

Luckily at this point the teacher came out of the classroom and ushered us inside. I didn't so much as look at Emmett for the rest of the morning.

I was about to make my way to lunch alone, keen on avoiding Emmett, when two pairs of strong arms pulled me behind one of the classrooms.

"What the f-" I twisted around to see my captors. Jasper and Emmett. I glared at the latter.

"What do you want?" I hissed.

"I wanted to say sorry! I know what I did was wrong, and I hope you can forgive me," Emmett stared at his shoes, pouting slightly, with his hands jammed in his pockets. He looked like a five-year-old being forced to apologize – the fact that he was six-foot-seven and huge only made it even more comical.

I burst out laughing.

"S'okay man. I guess it _was_ a good way to get rid of Lauren – I just hope Bella never hears it."

The guys looked relieved that I had forgiven Emmett so quickly and easily. We walked to lunch together, joking like there had never been a fight.

To my annoyance, Alice had invited Bella to sit at our table during lunch again. I tried me best to ignore her, and she did the same. It had looked like it was going to be an uneventful lunch period until Alice roused Rosalie from her make out session with Emmett by poking her with a plastic Spork.

"Alice, this had better be good. What do you want?" Rosalie snapped. I paid closer attention to the conversation – for Alice to interrupt Rosalie and Emmett, it must be important.

"I wanted to know if you were busy tomorrow," Alice explained, "I was planning a girls night at my place. Bella's coming too."

I couldn't stop myself – I spit out the juice in my mouth and it sprayed across the table. I was surprised to see an identical spray of juice shooting from my left – Bella had also spit out her beverage.

Bella. At my house. For the Night.

"Bella's staying over at our house?" I asked Alice, trying desperately to hide the many emotions burning beneath my surface – disbelief, excitement, horror, anger to name a few. She ignored me, and focused her attention on Rosalie, who had forgotten her annoyance and was now giving ideas.

I looked away from Alice and made eye contact with Jasper and Emmett. Jasper was sympathetic – no doubt understanding how hard it would be for me to know Bella was sleeping in my house and have to pretend her feeling of hate towards me were mutual.

Emmett was grinning. No doubt picturing scandalous scenarios that I'd rather not see. I frowned at him, silently telling him to go to hell.

Before anybody else could notice the look we shared, I dropped my gaze and spent the rest of the lunch hour staring at the edge of the table, dreading the next day.

Why on earth would Alice put me through this? Did she honestly think this would get us together? Well, she was wrong. If Bella hated me, and she most certainly did, I could return the feelings. It wasn't like me to be this hung up on a girl – especially one who didn't like me!

So it's settled, I decided. I hate Bella Swan.

I swore I could feel my heart silently dying.


	8. Detentions and Slumber Parties

Okay - chapter eight. Sorry it took so long, but I had school and sports and friends.

By the way, congratulate me on making competitive soccer :) ahaha

Enjoy the chapter, and your reviews make me happy (hint,hint)

BPOV

Friday dawned bright and sunny – even nicer than the day before. The weather seemed to be mocking my mood, which was the complete opposite.

My grumpiness was mostly due to the fact that I had barely slept a wink last night, but also because I was getting some last minute jitters about the sleepover. Or my personal hell – whatever you wanted to call it.

The second I got to school, like the day before, Alice was at my side, this time accompanied by Rosalie. I wondered whether the boys were annoyed at me for stealing their time with their girlfriends, but didn't spare it much thought – Jasper and Emmett didn't strike me as the jealous types.

"Bella, it's going to be so fun. Don't be nervous - just relax!" Alice reassured me gently. I turned to face her.

"Who says I'm nervous? Why would I be nervous? I'm not," I ranted. Alice shot Rosalie a knowing look before responding:

"Alright, lie to yourself. You'll come around eventually."

I stared at her, completely confused.

"Right. Let's just go to class before you confuse me more."

When we reached English we waved goodbye to Rosalie then went inside and took our seats. We were a couple minutes early so we chatted as we waited for the rest of the class to arrive.

Alice had been in the midst of telling me a rather amusing story featuring Emmett and a bull frog when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced at Alice before turning around, to see if her expression would give me a hint as to who was poking me. All her face showed, however, was surprise, and a bit of disgust.

"Bella?" I heard from behind me. I recognized the voice instantly – Mike Newton.

"What?" I said flatly. I had never liked Mike – he was cocky and stupid.

"I, uh… Well, there's a dance next weekend…" He mumbled. I glared at him.

"That's great, really fantastic. Why did you feel the need to tell me that?" I snapped. He stuttered hopelessly.

"I, um… Wanted you to g-go with me?" he was so nervous his voice cracked on the last word. I would have laughed at his pathetic attempt to ask somebody out if that somebody hadn't been me.

"No. Now leave," I said, not quite able to maintain the same amount of harshness – my interest in the dance overshadowed it.

A dance would no doubt require entertainment. Entertainment such as a live performer? I felt my heart speed up at this possibility. I hadn't sung in front of anyone since I left my old band, and Phoenix. Maybe this was just what I needed – something familiar to keep my mind off of the very un-familiar of Forks.

"Um, Bella?" Alice waved a hand in front of my face. Apparently I had been staring off into space.

"Sorry, Alice," I mumbled, smiling slightly at the prospect of performing again.

"Are you alright? You look spaced out," she asked, concerned. I ignored her question and instead asked one of my own:

"Alice, at the dances – what kind of music do they usually have?" She stared at me in a way that told me she was questioning my mental health.

"Um, good music?" she replied, confused. I laughed, which only made her worried expression more pronounced.

"No, no, I mean do they have live performances? Or just a DJ?" she looked a little less concerned, but still not altogether convinced of my sanity.

"A DJ. We have no talent in Forks," she shook her head in mock sadness, "Why?"

"Well…" I paused, unsure of whether or not I should tell her the truth. I finally decided I might as well – I had nothing to lose.

"Back home I was in a band. I just thought it would be nice to do something I'm familiar with – maybe I could sing? I could try and get Kyle and Daniel down here to play with me."

Alice was bouncing in her seat with excitement.

"Oh, Bella! I didn't know you could sing! Yes, yes you have to perform! It'll be amazing! Oh, I'm so excited!" I couldn't help but grin at her over-excitement. She had never even heard me and was already gushing about how fantastic it would be.

At this point the teacher came in the room, forcing us to put our conversation on hold.

Only at lunch did we get a chance to resume the topic of my singing. Alice, Rosalie and I were the first ones at the table, and Alice wasted no time in informing her of my plan to perform at the dance.

"Oh wow Bella, that's so cool! You have to perform. I think we should keep this a secret from the guys – their reactions would be priceless if it was a surprise," We all burst into laughter picturing the candid reactions of the guys.

"Definitely. So, are you going to call your band mates?" asked Alice. I shrugged.

"I guess so. Hey, would you guys mind if I called right now? I haven't spoken with them in a while…" I trailed off, thinking of my friends back home.

"Of course not. Go ahead and call."

I smiled, then flipped out my black cell phone and dialed Kyle's number. On the second ring, he answered.

"Yo," he said flatly. I instantly knew he hadn't checked the caller id – had he known it was me calling, his welcome would have been a bit friendlier.

"Thanks so much Kyle, for that warm hello. I missed you, too."

"Bella! No way! Wait –" I heard him call out to Daniel in the background before returning to me, "I'm putting you on speaker phone, okay?"

"Okay," I laughed.

"Bella!" cried Daniel.

"Daniel!" I cried back, equally enthusiastic. The guys laughed.

"We've missed you! When are you gonna come visit us?" Kyle fake-pouted. I laughed again.

"I've missed you guys too! And actually, about that visit… I was wondering if you guys could do me a favor," I smiled into the phone.

"Anything, Bells," said Daniel happily.

"Good. Well, there's going to be a dance over here. One that seems to require live entertainment…" I trailed off, not needing to finish my sentence for them to understand.

"Alright! The band is back together! When is this dance, my main home fry?" said Kyle. I had to laugh at his word choice.

"Next Friday. Please, _please_ tell me you guys can come," I crossed my fingers under the table. There was a short pause on their part before they responded:

"Great. We'll be there," I grinned happily at the fact that soon I'd be seeing my best friends from Phoenix.

I spent the rest of the lunch hour talking on the phone with Kyle and Daniel, just catching up. I seemed to have missed a lot in the mere week since I had moved. I had forgotten how easy it was to talk to them – and how much I missed them. Unfortunately, after what felt like less than five minutes, the bell rang.

"Oh crap," I sighed, "I have to go, guys. I'll talk to you later. Can't wait to see you!" after they had bid me farewell, I walked with Alice to my next class.

"Sorry about that, Alice. I didn't really talk to you guys at lunch," I said, feeling bad for blowing off my new friends. Alice smiled kindly.

"It's okay, Bella. It must be hard for you, leaving everything behind to move here – I understand that you want to keep in touch with your old friends."

Not long after this we had reached the Biology building, and Alice set off for her own class. I wasn't too worried about Biology anymore – all Edward did was ignore me. I walked in and saw he was already seated, scowling more darkly than ever at the board.

I sat down just before the teacher began explaining what we were doing.

"Today, we will be using the microscopes. I don't have enough for each individual student, so you're going to have to pair up. Everyone will be working with the person beside them," the teacher continued to drawl, unaware that two of his students had become as rigid as boards.

"No way," hissed Edward through his teeth, before raising his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Cullen?" said the teacher harshly, annoyed at being interrupted in the midst of his lecture.

"Could we pick our own partners? Or work alone? Or… anything?" Edward asked, clearly desperate to not work with me. The teacher simply frowned.

"No, I think not Mr. Cullen. It's good to broaden your horizons, work with new people. Anyways, the cellular anatomy…" he continued on with his lecture. We both remained tense and frozen.

Is this really worth it? I thought to myself, having a pointless enemy? Especially if this gets in the way of my friendship with the rest of his family and Rosalie and Jasper…

"Edward," I said, straining slightly to keep a civil tone. He looked taken aback that I was talking to him, but quickly recovered his composure.

"What," he said, in an emotionless voice that might have given even me a run for my money.

"Well… maybe we should call a truce? I'm not saying we should be friends, but just not… enemies. It's really just a pain in the ass," I said, trying to stay polite, but slipping up at the end.

I expected him to agree. To tell me it was a fabulous idea, and how mature it was of me to try and sort out or differences like adults. What I did not expect was for him to snort in laughter.

"It's a little late for that, _Bella,_" he said coldly, uttering my name as if it was the foulest of curse words. His cold demeanor had me riled in an instant.

"You bastard!" I yelled, instantly drawing the entire classes attention, "I apologize to you and you _laugh _at me?" He laughed coldly again before responding:

"Bull shit. That wasn't an apology – you're embarrassed by what you said before, and too proud to say sorry for it. And even if you _did_, there's no way in_ hell_ I'd accept!"

Without consciously making the decision to do so, I found myself standing, facing Edward, who was also out of his seat. I couldn't help but notice that there was less than half a foot of space between us.

"I would never apologize to you, you conceited fu-"

The teacher cut me off mid-curse by a shrill blow from a whistle (god knows where he got it). His face had turned a terrible puce colour, and he seemed too furious for words. Finally he regained composure, and without uttering a word to us, turned to his desk and began scrawling furiously on a sheet of paper. Once he had finished, he stood up and handed it to Edward.

"Take…To…The office…Go…Now…" He managed to choke out, and then ushered us from the room.

The atmosphere was so tens once Edward and I were outside I could have cut it with a knife. We walked briskly, keeping as much distance from one another as possible.

Finally we reached the office. Still without uttering a word, we entered the cramped room and Edward handed the secretary the note. Not having read it, we had no idea what it said, but judging by the way her eyes had bulged by the time she reached the bottom, I could tell it was bad.

"Is this true?" squeaked the secretary indignantly.

"No, he made it sound worse than it was. That's not actually what happened" I lied quickly. She glared at me.

"So you two didn't have a screaming match in the middle of a lesson, use foul language and disrupt the class?"

"Oh…" I said, chuckling softly, "I guess that is what happened."

Truthfully, I wasn't scared at all. I had gotten into situations like this dozens of times in Phoenix, and didn't make a big deal of them. The worse that could happen was a detention or two, right? The secretary didn't seem to approve of the nonchalant way I handled it, though.

"This is no laughing matter, Ms. Swan. I can see from your record that they let you run wild in Phoenix, but I assure you that will not be the case here. And as for _you,_" she said, turning her piercing gaze to Edward, "This is one strike too many. If I had a penny for every time you were sent to this office… You will both be serving an hour long detention after school tomorrow."

Edward and I broke into identical grins. One detention? That was nothing. The secretary seemed to guess the reason for our lightheartedness, and to my surprise, smiled as well.

"Let me finish. As I was saying, you will both be serving hour-long detentions after school… for a month. Starting tomorrow – we have an important meeting tonight, so nobody would be able to watch you."

My grin froze on my face. A _month?_ That was thirty hours worth of detention!

"There's no disputing it," she said sternly, before we had the chance to argue. I scowled.

Soon after, the bell rang and she allowed us to go to our final class.

"This is ridiculous!" snapped Edward upon leaving the office.

"I know! The worst I ever got back home was a three-day suspension. And this is my first 'strike' in Forks!" I growled.

"This is –" he stopped talking mid-sentence, and made a strange gurgling sound. I turned to see if he had choked on a bug or something, but he seemed fine, just unwilling to speak. Weird.

Without another word we went our separate ways, me to gym and he to whatever class he had.

Gym passed easily. We spent the whole period being explained the rules of basketball, so I didn't have the chance to injure anybody. I was still angry for the punishment I had received, but the rage had subsided slightly, and was now in the back of my mind.

When the bell rang, signifying the end of the day, I wasted no time in heading to my car. I entered the parking lot, and was confused to see Alice and Rosalie leaning against my truck.

I wonder what they want, I mused. Probably to hear about my fight with Edward. I increased my gait, excited to tell them my first hand account.

I was about three feet away from them when realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

Oh.

My.

God.

"Girls Night!" screeched Alice, running over and grabbing my forearm. Still too numb to protest, Alice and Rosalie began dragging me to the Volvo. Edward's Volvo. No, no, no…

"Wait! What about my car?" I said the first thing that popped into my head. Alice laughed.

"Already taken care of – Jasper's taking it, then walking back to his place. It's only ten minutes away."

Before I could utter another word in protest, they shoved me head first into the backseat of the Volvo.

"What the hell are you guys – oh," I felt my heart flop uncomfortably at the sound of Edward's voice. I raised my head a fraction to see his face, but before I could decipher his expression he had turned to face the front.

"Guys, I don't think –" I began, but Alice cut me off.

"Bella, you can't back out now! I have so much planned for us… But… I guess if you _really_ don't want to spend time with me…" I chanced a look at her face, and instantly regretted it.

It was the saddest look I had ever seen. Her big brown eyes were wider than usual, and glistening, as though she were on the verge of tears. He carefully trimmed eyebrows were slanted up, and her bottom lip quivered. It was heartbreaking.

"Ugh! Fine! Just stop making that face," I said turning away. In less than a second, Alice was once again bouncing for joy.

"Yay! I knew you'd come. This is going to be so much fun!"

As soon as Emmett got in, Edward slid smoothly from the parking lot. The ride passed quickly enough, with me sandwiched between Rose and Alice in the backseat, as if to keep me from making a break for it.

"We're here!" called Alice in a singsong voice. I glanced out the window and felt my jaw drop. The others (excluding Edward, who had remained completely silent during the whole ride) laughed at my expression.

The house (more like a mansion) was completely gorgeous. And, my god, it was _huge_. It made my house with Charlie look like an outhouse.

"Come on, let's go," said Rosalie happily, helping Alice to yank me from the car and up the front steps. Only when we reached the front door and Alice paused to fish out her keys did I find my voice.

"Your house…" I said, trailing off, unable to find words to accurately describe it. Alice and Rosalie laughed.

"Ya, they get that a lot," said Rosalie. Finally Alice managed to open the door and I was shoved through. I took a minute to examine the inside – it was just as nice as the outside. **A/N I'm not going to describe the house – just picture it the same way it looks in Stephenie Meyer's books, except with only two floors. Okay? Okay.**

"This is the TV room, and the kitchen is over there. Upstairs is up," said Alice in a rush, eager to start our girly activities.

"Where will the torture take place?" I said nervously.

"My room," said Alice, grabbing my hand and pulling me up the stairs.

Her room, like the rest of the house, was amazing. I didn't have much time to examine it though, for the moment we entered Alice attacked me with a dozen different movies, and told me to pick the one I wanted to watch.

I decided on a horror, which would keep us all entertained. By the time the movie was finished, it was getting late, and I was starving.

"That was awesome! I loved it," cried Rose. Alice and I agreed.

"Now, let's get down to business," said Alice, suddenly stern.

"What business?" I asked suspiciously. Alice laughed.

"Nothing bad! We just wanted to hear about your fight with Edward!"

"Well, it was… wait, how do you even know about that?" I asked, confused.

"It was all over the school by last period. _Everybody_ knows," said Alice, laughing at my ignorance.

"There are no secrets in Forks – it was bound to get out. And it did. Now give us some details!" said Rosalie.

I told them exactly what happened – how Edward was a complete douche, how our Biology teacher looked like a tomato, and how I now had detention every day for a month. They were a very good audience – gasping and nodding their heads whenever they saw fit.

"I knew Jessica was lying," said Rosalie, shaking her head in mock disappointment once I had finished my tale, "she told me you and Edward got it on in the middle of the classroom."

Her and Alice both burst into laughter. I rolled my eyes.

"Not funny," I said, trying to stay mad. It was a difficult feat, since they were both making the most ridiculous faces in an attempt to coax a smile out of me. After about ten seconds I couldn't stand it any more, and burst into laughter.

We were still laughing when the door opened five minutes later, revealing a rather grumpy Edward, holding a box of pizza.

"Here's your pizza, Alice. You owe me seven-fifty," before Alice could reach for it, Rosalie had leapt up and snatched it from him.

"Thank you, Mr. Cullen. Now tell me, who did you get it on with? Oops – I mean, what did you get on it? The pizza, I mean," Rosalie smiled sweetly. Alice and I burst into rather hysterical laughter. Edward scowled and stalked out of the room.

"Alice," I said suddenly, "when did you tell…your brother… to get us a pizza?" Alice laughed and held up her cell phone.

"I texted him. Clever, eh?" We laughed.

The rest of the evening passed easily. We stayed in Alice's room the entire time, only leaving once to get a tub of ice cream. Rose and Alice were great fun, and easy to talk to. I felt like I had known them both since pre school.

At three thirty in the morning, we decided to go to sleep, since Rosalie and Alice had to be awake for their dates with Jasper and Emmett the next day. We pulled a dozen blankets and pillows onto the ground and made a crude nest-type-thing to sleep in.

"Goodnight Bella. Goodnight Rose," Alice whispered.

"Goodnight Alice. Goodnight Rosalie," I whispered back.

"Goodnight Bella. Goodnight Creep," Rosalie whispered. We each hid our faces in our pillows to muffle our giggles.

Eventually our laughter subsided, and was replaced by the sound of soft, even breathing from Alice and Rose. Soon after, I too fell into a deep slumber.

I woke with a start after what felt like less than a five minute sleep. I groaned softly, and managed to drag open my eyelids. It couldn't be morning all ready, could it?

I turned my head and saw Alice and Rosalie, still snoring softly. I craned my neck, and after seeing the flashing numbers on Alice's digital clock, moaned and let my head fall back onto the pillow. It was only four thirty.

I soon realized what had awoken me – I had to go to the bathroom. I cursed myself silently for having drunk four sodas before bed, and then stood up carefully, so to not wake Alice or Rose.

I tiptoed to the door, and only when I was standing in the eerily silent hall did I realize I had no idea where the bathroom was.

"Damn it," I growled quietly. I decided to just go by trial and error, and open every door on the top floor until I found their toilet.

The first door I checked was a closet filled with towels. I doubted there was a toilet in there. Second door was her parent's room. I hurriedly closed it. I had met them earlier in the evening, and found them quite nice, but wasn't sure how they'd take to being awoken by a stranger in the early hours of the morning.

I stopped after looking in her parents room. There were only three doors left – one was the bathroom, and the other two were her brother's rooms, I guessed. So, which door should I pick? I wondered. Left, right or center? After doing Eeny Meeny Miny Mo, I chose the door on the left. I took a deep breath, and wrenched open the door.

The first thing I realized was that this was most certainly not the bathroom. The next was that the light was on, and the bed was empty.

The last thing I realized was that it was Edward's room.

I wasn't exactly sure how I could tell it was his room – I just could. I had a sudden urge to see if my hunch was correct, so I walked in, carefully shut the door behind me and then strode over to the desk in the corner, where a pile of homework was laid out. Sure enough, the name 'Edward Cullen' was printed in neat script in the corner of the page.

For some reason, instead of leaving his room and continuing on in my Quest for the Potty like I should have done, I remained by his desk, and examined his bedroom.

It was very tidy for a boy's room, and very well decorated. The walls, carpet and comforter were all varying shades of gold. I saw that one of the walls was completely blocked from view by and enormous shelf, completely full of CDs. Suddenly my feet moved of their own accord, and I found myself in front of the shelf, examining his music collection.

He had the CDs of all my favourite bands. Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Green Day, and so many more. I continued to look through the music, my surprise and slight awe growing with every title. I had just finished looking through the first shelf when I heard the sound of a toilet flushing.

I froze, and tried failingly to convince myself that it wasn't Edward. A second later, there was the unmistakable sound of footsteps in the hall – right outside this room.

At this point, I panicked. There was no way I could make it out of the room without him seeing me. That left me with only one choice – to hide. Without giving it a second thought, I flung myself under his desk just as the door opened.

My heart was pounding so loudly in my chest I was surprised he couldn't hear it. I watched him move around the room, though the desk partially blocked him from view so I could only see him from his waist down.

He walked around the room aimlessly for almost fifteen minutes. I had begun to relax at this point, thinking he would surely go to bed soon and then I could sneak out. My calm aura was shattered though when he made his way over to the desk.

I panicked, thinking he would sit down and hit me with his feet, but he simply stood in front of the desk. A second later, there was a rustling of fabric, and he dropped something on the desk. I had begun to relax again, only to have my heart kick into overdrive when I saw what he was doing.

He stepped back from the desk, and popped the button on the waistband of his baggy jeans. He pulled down the zipper. At this point I was creeping towards hyperventilation. I tried desperately to keep myself under control, but then his pants dropped.

Oh _god._

His body was amazing – perfectly toned legs, and I could see a sliver of abs from where I was squatted. His boxers were red, and riding a bit low on his hips. I couldn't help myself – I moaned softly.

Not softly enough, it seemed.

In a heartbeat he had ducked down to find the source of the noise, and I found our faces mere inches apart. With a stifled yell of shock, he jumped back, and landed on his butt on the floor, his gaze never leaving my face. After a moment the surprise was replaced with something else – anger. We remained silent, me wracking my brains for something suitable to say to somebody who had just found you crouched in the little nook under their desk at five in the morning, and him seemingly still too stunned to speak.

"Oops," I said finally, "I guess this isn't the bathroom."

**A/N**

Ahaha. My first cliff-hanger! I feel like a bitch.

Sorry guys, I really don't like doing these, but this chapter was just too long! Eleven pages, and if I had continued who knows how long it would have been.

Well, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon - I'll change my routine a bit; the next one will be Bella's perspective again, the rest of the sleepover, then I'll do one or two in Edward's point of view.

10 imaginary points to whoever can guess why Edward was such a turd in Biology :)

love,  
hillroy


	9. Blood, Clothes, and Blushes

Agh. Sorry sorry sorry for the wait. I've been busy. I know you all must hate me for leaving you with a cliff hanger and then not updating right away :( Sorry!

Anyways, here's the next chapter. I haven't decided whether or not I'll do two in Edward's point of view after this - I guess you'll just have to wait and see!

**OH! And before I forget - Congratulations to the following people for correctly guessing why Edward was such a douche :)**

Kayhuahua  
HeartlessMagic  
DejaVu856  
killparanoia

Yay - you each get ten imaginary points.

Now, Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

PREVIOUS CHAPTER RE-CAP_: We remained silent, me wracking my brains for something suitable to say to somebody who had just found you crouched in the little nook under their desk at five in the morning, and him seemingly still too stunned to speak._

"_Oops," I said finally, "I guess this isn't the bathroom."_

BPOV

I could think of nothing else to say. I had counted to sixty twice before either of us moved or spoke again.

"I'll just go," I said, trying to retain a shred of my dignity while I crawled out from under his desk and stood up, brushing away a dust bunny that clung to my black pajama shorts.

I made my way to the door slowly, trying to not to look at Edward's body as I passed. I slapped myself mentally – why was I even thinking like that?

I had just reached for the doorknob when, to my surprise, Edward spoke:

"Wait."

It was a simple request – so why was my heart now pounding twice as hard? I turned slowly to find him still sitting on the ground, staring at me. His bright green eyes made eye contact with my own. They were mesmerizing – I had to struggle for a moment before I could form coherent words.

"Yes?" I replied slowly, wary of what he might say. Would he yell at me? His expression was marginally more calm than before, but I couldn't be sure. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but in a house full of his sleeping family, a screaming match would probably lead to rather unpleasant questions.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

I stared at him. I had expected him ask why the hell I was hiding in his room, scream, swear, and chuck me bodily through the door; not ask me if I had a _boyfriend_. The sheer randomness of it caught me off guard, and I didn't have time to come up with some smart-ass remark.

"Um… no," I said, completely confused. He studied my face for a minute, as though trying to tell whether or not I was lying. Once he was convinced of my honesty, he dropped his gaze, and stared at the floor, a slight smile playing on the corner of his lips.

"You can go now," he said softly, still not looking at me. I was about to listen to him and leave the room, but my curiosity got the better of me.

"Why did you want to know _that_?" He hadn't been planning on asking me out, had he? No, of course not – that was just silly.

While I waited for him to respond, my eyes, which had managed to remain on his face until now, began to roam his body of their own accord.

I knew it was wrong – he was basically my enemy, for Christ's sake! – but I couldn't help myself. He was completely gorgeous, even when sitting on the ground in his boxers at five in the morning.

Eventually I managed to wrench my eyes from his perfect physique and look at his face. To my complete embarrassment, he was watching me, smirking. He had obviously seen me…looking. I felt myself blush bright red.

"I'm surprised at you, Swan. I didn't imagine you a peeping tom," his smirk was huge.

"I'm not!" I hissed angrily, trying to keep my voice down so to not wake the rest of the house, "I thought this was the bathroom."

His smirk, if it was even possible, grew larger.

"Really? Well, I can see it's an easy mistake to make. There's a bed, a computer desk, CD shelves… yes, my room certainly does resemble a bathroom."

It took all my self control to not knock his lights out then and there. Even in my extreme annoyance, I couldn't help but notice the change in his snide remarks from today at school and the ones he was firing at me now. At school he had seemed like his intent was actually to hurt me – now it seemed just for his enjoyment.

"Look," I growled, a little too loudly, "I was looking for the bathroom. I came in here by mistake. Then you came back, and I didn't want you to find me in your room. So I… hid," I finished lamely, completely aware of how ridiculous it sounded. He shook with silent laughter.

"Okay. I guess I forgive you," he smirked. I wondered idly why he was still sitting on the floor.

"I don't think I apologized," I said icily. He frowned slightly.

"You did today," he pointed out, which only reminded me of his extreme rudeness at school.

"And I took it back!" I snapped, turning on my heel and storming from his room. A second later I heard his soft footsteps in the hall behind me. I ignored him. I had just reached the door to Alice's room when he spoke.

"Bel –," He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Swan. Just be honest with me – why do you hate me?"

I glared at him.

"Go to hell, Edward Cullen."

With that, I turned dramatically and threw open Alice's bedroom door. I took a step in and to my horror, was attacked by something white and fluffy. I flailed hopelessly for a minute, but soon there were a dozen more fluffy things converging on me.

The next thing I knew, Edward was howling with laughter.

"What the hell! It's not funny! Get them off of me!" I cried, tripping over one of the things and falling to the ground, landing on my backside. I silently damned my klutziness.

"G-get what off of you? The t-towels?" Edward was laughing so hard he couldn't even speak properly – he was leaning forward, clutching his stomach and grasping the wall for support.

I looked down, and sure enough, there were no crazed white monsters attacking me – I was covered in huge, fluffy towels. I realized a second later that Alice's door was the next one down – I had walked into the closet.

Livid now, I got up, threw the towels away, and stormed through the right door. Edward still hadn't recovered from his laughing fit, so didn't have a chance to try and stop me. I locked the door behind me, before collapsing on the pile of pillows we had used as a bed.

I was glad to see Alice and Rosalie were still sleeping. It would have been rather embarrassing having to explain what happened.

I had lay down and almost drifted off to sleep when an uncomfortable feeling in my bladder reminded me why I had left the room in first place. I almost growled, and did my best to push the thought from my mind. Never again would I go to the bathroom in Alice Cullen's house – it most certainly was not worth it.

* * *

"Wake up sunshine!"

I groaned and rolled over, desperate for more sleep. However, the person screaming in my ear seemed to have a different idea.

"Come on, Bella, it's eleven o'clock! You're wasting the day!" I pried open my heavy eyelids to find Alice face only a few inches from mine. This woke me more effectively than anything else.

"Holy crap, Alice!" I yelled, now wide awake. She just grinned and clapped her hands, happy that I had awoken.

"So," said Rosalie, joining us, "what shall we do today?"

"Sleep?" I suggested hopefully. They just rolled their eyes.

"Yea, right. I vote we go shopping!" squealed Alice, delighted by the very thought. I blanched.

"No. No way – not going to happen. Only when pigs fly will I go shopping," I said stubbornly, clenching my jaw.

* * *

"I think I just saw a flying pig," joked Alice, looking out the window of her Porsche. I scowled in the backseat, while Rosalie, sitting shot gun, laughed.

Even though I had kicked, screamed, and cussed, they had somehow managed to get me dressed and shoved into Alice's ridiculously gorgeous and overly expensive car. I should know by now to never underestimate the upper body strength of two avid shoppers.

"Bella?" said Alice, her tone suddenly serious.

"Yes, Alice?" I replied warily, not having the slightest idea what she might want.

"What happened between you and Edward?"

I stifled my gasp. I had been pleased this morning to find that neither seemed aware of my nighttime adventures, and had planned to keep it that way. I wondered what had tipped Alice off to the fact that something had happened.

"Nothing," I lied feebly, "why would you think something had?"

"Well, at school and while driving us to my house yesterday he was grumpier than a warthog in the rain," Rose and I burst into laughter at her odd comparison, but she held up a hand to silence us. Only when our snickering subsided did she continue:

"As I was saying, he was very unhappy yesterday. I assumed, of course, it had to do with you. Now, if my suspicions are correct (which they are), I would have thought knowing you were sleeping in his house would only make him grouchier. So you would understand why I was surprised to come down for breakfast this morning to find him _humming,_" she raised and eyebrow at me.

"I guess he had a good sleep?" it came out sounding like a question. Neither Alice nor Rosalie looked the slightest bit convinced, but to my relief, let the subject drop for the time being.

"We're here!" cried Alice in a sing-song voice. Rosalie clapped her hands and I groaned.

We parked and entered the mall quickly, Alice and Rosalie practically running. I didn't complain – if we ran, maybe we would finish shopping sooner. It was a vain hope, I knew, but I was willing to cling to anything that might make a day of shopping even slightly more bearable.

"Here, lets go to Hollister – they have a sale."

Without further ado, we rushed into the store. My two friends rushed around crazily, snatching up anything they could find in their size regardless of the price. Hoping they'd forget about me, I tried to disappear into the racks of jeans.

This tactic didn't work for long. Soon Alice remembered about me, and shoved me into a change room with about two dozen pieces of clothing.

"Alice!" I cried indignantly, "I can't afford all this!"

"So? I'll buy it for you. It will look so great on you!" I heard her call back from the outside.

"No way. I can't let you do that."

Of course she didn't listen to me. She bought me basically everything I tried on, not only in Hollister, but in every other store we visited. She seemed completely oblivious to my constant stream of complaints – I hated having money spent on me.

Finally, by three o'clock, I had an affect on her.

"Please Alice, no more!" I practically begged. To my surprise, instead of ignoring me like she had been doing since then, she sighed in resignation.

"Oh, fine Bella. Just one more store and then we'll go home."

I was feeling pretty good about my victory over her shopping mania until I saw what store she was leading me to.

Victoria's Secret.

"Alice," I warned. She just smiled innocently, while Rosalie laughed.

"This is the last one, I promise."

I groaned, but saw not point in debating with her – it would only draw out this horrifying experience. Without uttering another word I locked myself in one of the change rooms and tried on anything Alice or Rose threw over the door, only complaining occasionally.

"Ugh," I said, tossing a frilly pink lingerie set back at Alice over the dressing room door, "No pink. No frills. Why do I even need any of this? I'm not planning on sleeping with anyone any time soon."

I thought I heard Alice mumble "Not that _you_ know of" from the other side of the door, but decided I must have imagined it.

"You never know, Bella," she finally said. I couldn't get any more of an explanation from her.

Finally, after almost a dozen shopping bags, twice as many blisters and a pounding headache, Alice dropped me off at home. Though I had had a good time at the sleep over, after that shopping trip I wasn't too sorry to see the back of her shiny yellow Porsche.

The moment I entered the house I kicked off my converse sneakers and massaged my aching feet, moaning slightly in pain. Charlie appeared to have heard me, for a second later his head appeared from the kitchen.

"Bells – are you alright?" he asked nervously. I tried my best to fake a smile.

"Yea, I'm okay. Just a little sore." After I repeated a couple more times that I was fine, he disappeared into the TV room to watch some game, leaving me with nothing to do but bring up my numerous bags.

I hauled them upstairs, taking no more than two at a time – I didn't want to risk a serious injury. Surprisingly, I only tripped once. Maybe I was beginning to outgrow some of my klutziness.

After shoving the new purchases into my closet, I collapsed on my bed, exhausted. It was only five o'clock – what could I do for the rest of the day? I decided to call Kyle and Daniel and hammer out some of the finer details of their visit.

Kyle picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?" he said flippantly. I smiled, glad to hear his familiar voice.

"Hey Kyle."

"Bella! Perfect timing, I was just going to call you. We talked to our parents and we have everything sorted out – we arrive in Forks Wednesday, then leave Sunday," he said happily. I frowned.

"That doesn't seem like very long," I noted, and he laughed.

"I know. But it's the best we can do. Don't worry, it won't be the last time we visit."

"Where are you guys staying? Oh, Is Dan with you right now?" I asked.

"Nah, he's with Tanya. They finally got together. We're staying at some hotel in Port Angeles – we wouldn't want to show up at your house and give poor Charlie a heart attack," we both laughed, picturing Charlie's reaction if two teenaged boys showed up at his door, ready to make themselves at home. I was also happy for Dan and Tanya – they had known each other for ages, but never admitted they liked one another, even though everybody else knew it.

I spent the majority of the rest of my day talking with Kyle, and then decided to go to bed early. Alice's insane shopping tactics had thoroughly exhausted me.

I slept relatively well, except for a single dream. In it I was under Edward's desk, and there were bars reminiscent of a prison cell holding me hostage. Through the cracks in the bars I could see Edward, in his red boxers, dancing the Macarena.

I woke with a start soon after, to find a strip of watery sunlight playing across my face from my bedroom window. I glanced at my digital clock – ten-fifteen. Yawning and stretching contently, I got out of bed and made myself some breakfast. A note on the counter from Charlie told me he was out fishing with some friends from the station.

I decided to spend my Sunday catching up on homework, and other small jobs around the house that needed doing. I tried to keep myself occupied, but in the odd time I found myself with nothing to do, my mind would wander, usually to a certain bronze-haired boy.

Edward Cullen.

I knew thinking about him was inevitable. I wanted – no, needed – to find out what was up with him. One minute he genuinely hates me, the next he finds me hidden in his room, barely bats an eyelash, and then asks me if I have a boyfriend. After nearly half an hour of trying to dissect his motives, I gave up, still just as, if not more, confused.

* * *

I had always hated Mondays. Maybe it was a prejudice brought on by a society that so loathed the end of the weekend, or maybe it was just programmed into my genetic makeup. Whatever the cause, the next day at school I was as grumpy and unpleasant as ever.

"Bella, are you okay?" asked Alice gently after first period. I sighed, knowing I was being a complete asshole to basically everyone around me.

"I'm sorry, Alice," I said truthfully, "It's just the combination of a crappy nights sleep and my hatred of Mondays," This was true. For the second time in Forks I had had a nightmare, and it had been exactly the same as the first, right down to Edward's detached head. Once again, I had woken up screaming. I hoped it wouldn't be and ongoing occurrence.

"It's okay, Bella," said Alice kindly, "Nobody expects you to be a saint, especially after having to leave everything and move here."

I had to laugh at that. Of course nobody would expect me to be a saint – nobody who had met me, anyways.

We went our separate ways soon after. I had almost reached my second period class without having to speak with anyone, when I met Tyler. I groaned inwardly.

"Hey Bella!" he cried happily, upon approaching me. I grimaced, though tried my best to be infinitesimally agreeable.

"Hey Tyler," I said slowly.

"So," he said, winking suavely (I almost barfed), "have you heard about the dance this Friday?" I smiled, thinking of Dan and Kyle – unfortunately, Tyler seemed to think I was smiling in encouragement.

"Do you want to go with me?" he said, winking again.

"Um, no. I have to go to class, bye," I said, leaving hurriedly. He's reminder of Kyle and Dan's visit had put me in slightly better spirits – I only had to work my way through today and tomorrow before I got to see them.

My unexpected good spirits were squashed the moment I saw who was blocking the door of my class. It was the blonde-headed bimbo herself.

"Bella," she sneered when I was directly in front of her. I glared.

"Move," I said flatly. She laughed coldly.

"Not before I pass along a message."

"Don't you have somewhere you should be?" I asked, exasperated, "Like the zoo, perhaps?"

It took her a few slow seconds to understand my insult. By the time she did, she was fuming.

"Shut up," she snarled, "I just wanted to let you know that Edward wants you to stay away from him."

I rolled my eyes, "That's great."

"And he also told me to tell you you're a stupid, annoying slut."

I tried to keep my anger at bay, but for some reason, this pathetic slur had had an effect on me. She seemed to realize this, and continued:

"And that you should just leave him the fuck alone, and crawl back to your beloved Phoenix like the pathetic rat you a –"

She never got to finish her insult, due to the fact that I punched her square in the nose. Hard.

"Ah!" she screeched, clutching her nose, which was spurting blood from both nostrils, "You bitch! You broke my nose! You _psycho!_"

I rolled my eyes – she had deserved it. And I highly doubted I had actually broken her nose – I hadn't punched her very hard at all.

Soon her incessant squeals alerted everyone that something was wrong. All the students and the teacher exited the class we were standing in front of to see what was wrong. The second they saw the blood, the screaming started.

"Ah! Murder!" screamed a short girl with an afro, "Murder in Forks!"

"Call 911!"

"God, look at all the _blood!_"

The teacher managed to remain calm, and after seeing me and Lauren, seemed to understand what had happened.

"Swan and Mallory!" he bellowed, "To the office _now!_"

Needing no further encouragement, Lauren and I walked briskly, accompanied by the teacher who was several steps behind us.

"You'll pay for dis, Swan," Lauren snarled, pinching her nose in an attempt to stop the blood flow. I rolled my eyes, not daring to make a retort with a teacher so close behind us.

"I'm sewious," she continued, "I'm donna make you wish you never moved dere."

When we entered the office, the secretary took one look at Lauren and let out a small "oh!". She ushered her into the nurses room to see if anything was seriously wrong, and then quickly returned, which left me alone with her and the teacher.

"What on earth happened?" she asked, completely flustered.

"I'm wondering the same thing," said the teacher sternly, "perhaps Ms. Swan would give us the pleasure of explaining?"

Before I could say a word, a muffled voice from inside the nurses office yelled:

"She punched me! She bwoke my nose!"

I glared at the door, silently cursing Lauren to the deepest pits of hell, then turned back to face the adults. The teacher had a grim look on his face, as though his suspicions had just been confirmed, whereas the secretary was clutching her chest, looking completely astounded.

"Never in all my years of working here!" she squealed, flapping her arms hysterically. I almost laughed – she looked like an insane chicken.

"Is this true, Ms. Swan?" asked the teacher. I let out a low sigh.

"Well, yes. But she provoked me! And I didn't punch her hard, I doubt her nose is really broken."

They glared at me.

"You've been here two weeks, and already have a months worth of detentions, and now _this!_ Well, you're not going to be suspended, since I can tell that would hardly be a punishment – three months of detentions, and that's just the tip of the iceberg!" cried the secretary. I glared at her.

"Fine," I said, gritting my teeth, determined not to let show how irksome that really was.

I spent the rest of the day in the office. I was amused (though I didn't let it show) to find out that I really _had_ broken Lauren's nose. She was escorted to the hospital soon after I was told of my punishment.

Finally the last bell rang. I jumped up from my seat beside a potted plant, intending to leave this wretched school as quickly as possible, when I heard a voice behind me.

"Ah, ah, ah, Isabella. Trying to cut detention?" I turned to see the secretary smiling sickly at me.

I groaned aloud – I had almost forgotten.

Just a perfect ending to a perfect day, I thought grimly – spending an hour locked in a room with Edward Cullen.

* * *

Sorry :( I feel like I did a bad job on this. Next chapter will improve, I promise

Next time - detentions, Phoenix friends, and of course, drama :)


	10. EPOV: Detentions And Slumber Parties

OMC. I AM SO, SO, SO SO SO SORRY.

I know I'm a terrible person.

I can't believe it took me so long to update. Please forgive. I am terrible. I suck. I deserve to be locked in a room and forced to listen to Hannah Montana songs, over and over and over (and trust me, for me that would be the worst type of cruel and unusual punishment).

Anyways, here's Chapter Eight in Edward's point of view. There's going to be another chapter in his perspective, then I'll get on with the story.

I promise I'll upate sooner this time.

Once again, Sorry :(

ps. I turned fourteen on April 19th :)

* * *

EPOV

After what felt like hours, the lunch bell rang. I got up slowly, still slightly numb from finding out that Bella would be sleeping in my house on Friday.

I had intended to walk to Biology alone, to get used to the idea of hating Bella Swan, but fate was not on my side – before I had even left the cafeteria, there were a horde of girls at my side.

"Hey Edward," said a short red-head whose name I had forgotten, "Are you going to the dance next Friday?"

"Er," I said, trying to think of an excuse, "No. I'm visiting my grandma."

That had to be one the lamest excuses in the book. To my amazement, every single one of the girls seemed to believe it, and began cooing over how kind I was. I shouldn't be surprised, really – they believed anything I told them.

When we arrived in Biology I managed to extricate myself from my admirers (for lack of a better word) and head inside. To my relief, Bella hadn't arrived yet – it gave me some time to prepare myself for her presence.

She arrived two minutes after I sat down. To anybody else, it would look like I was completely unaware of her presence, but I knew better. Every second was an internal struggle to keep myself from staring at her.

_Damn it, Edward_, I thought, _you're supposed to hate her, not want to stare at her_!

I managed to pull myself together slightly after that, though it was still hard; therefore the second the bell rang I sped from the room to keep myself from doing anything rash.

The relief from being away from Bella was short-lived, and was replaced with anxiety when I remembered who was in my next class – Lauren.

Lauren, who Emmett had told I was dating Bella.

When I got to the room, I peeked in through the window beside the door to see if she was already there. She was. I saw her sitting in her desk, facing the door, with the hard look on her face. Waiting for me, I realized with horror.

I hesitated outside. Would she have the guts to scream at me in front of the entire class and the teacher? Probably not. So what was the worst she could do in front of all those people? Glare at me? With that thought in mind, I burst into the class.

The lesson had already begun when I arrived. The teacher glared at me when I slammed open the door noisily.

"Take a seat, Mr. Cullen," she said curtly. I did so quickly, relieved I hadn't gotten a detention.

Other than the fact that I could feel Lauren's gaze burning a hole in my head, the lesson passed uneventfully. That is, until the bell rang.

The second it did, I leapt out of my seat, hoping to escape before Lauren had a chance to catch me. Unfortunately, when I reached the door, I found her blocking it.

"Edward Cullen!" she hissed. I recoiled, actually scared. She looked sadistic.

"Um… Yes?" I asked. Due to the fact that she was blocking the only exit, a small crowd had formed around us.

"I can't believe you _kissed _that TRAMP!" she screamed at me. I swore I felt some spit hit my face.

It took me a minute to realize what she was talking about. Yes, Emmett had told her I was dating Bella, but I didn't remember him saying anything about me kissing her. I decided she had probably just assumed.

"Lauren, you really need to stay out of my business," I said, trying to sound stern.

"Oh, I WILL. FROM NOW ON. But maybe you should think of that BEFORE your little skank starts parading around the school, giving details of your _wonderful make-out sessions!"_ she screamed so loud her voice cracked.

Now I was really confused. Was she even talking about Bella? I doubted it – pigs would fly before Bella would brag about our imaginary kisses.

"Whatever, Lauren," I said coldly, deciding I really didn't give a shit. With that, I pushed past her and left the class, hurrying to my car.

Once I got home, I rushed directly up to my room, not in the mood to talk to anyone. I only left my sanctuary once to have dinner, and other than that spent the night upstairs, alone. Nobody came to bother me, for which I was relieved. I had a lot on my mind.

I soon fell asleep, images of Bella saturating my thoughts.

* * *

"Up and at 'em, Edward!" screamed a high voice in my ear. I groaned and rolled over, knowing right away who it was – only one person I knew had that much energy in the morning.

"Alice. Go away," I mumbled into my pillow. She laughed.

"Never! You have to wake up. We're gonna be late! Is it impossible for you to wake up early?" she said, still happy. I groaned again, but this time pulled myself out of bed.

"Fine! I'm up. Just let me find some clothes…" I mumbled, still half asleep.

"No need! Here, I already picked out your outfit. Now, up, up, up!" with that, she flounced out of the room.

I glanced at the end of my bed. Sure enough, Alice had laid out an entire outfit for me. I felt like a two-year-old.

Soon enough (thanks to Alice) I was in the Volvo with my family. We stopped to pick up Jasper and Rose, and then sped off to school. To my annoyance, the second I had parked Alice and Rosalie both ran off to meet Bella. Why did they have to like her?

I walked slowly with Emmett and Jasper, unwilling to meet up with the girls. Jasper seemed to notice.

"Avoiding Bella?" he guessed. I grimaced, which he took as a yes.

"Isn't she sleeping at our house tonight?" Emmett asked gruffly. My grimace became more pronounced.

"Thanks for reminding me, Emmett," I muttered. He just grinned roguishly.

* * *

The first half of the day rushed by in a blur. My horror that Bella was spending the night at my house seemed only to increase, so by lunch time I was basically a giant stress ball.

To my slight annoyance, whenever my thoughts strayed to the sleepover, I found myself forming rather explicit mental images, all containing Bella and myself, doing a wide variety of things. Watching a movie, cuddled on the couch. Forgiving each other, and then having a good laugh at how immature they had been to each other. Meeting in my room in the early hours of the morning… I mentally shook myself in an attempt to control my wild daydreams, knowing that that was all they would ever be.

I walked towards our table with Jasper and Emmett, and to my dismay, say the girls were already there. Alice, Rosalie and Bella were all huddled closely together, obviously discussing something.

Before we had reached them, they had pulled away, and Bella had taken out her cell phone. Though I knew it was wrong, I couldn't help myself eavesdropping a little. Even if we _did _hate each other, it didn't stop me from being curious about her.

"Next Friday," was the first thing I heard of her conversation, "Please, _please _tell me you guys can come."

I felt myself freeze in my seat. Guys? As in _boys?_ I felt a sudden, inexplicable burst of rage. Who were they? Why was she talking to them? And why the hell would they come here next Friday, the day of the dance…?

Realization hit my like a sledgehammer.

Her boyfriend. It must be – why else would she invite him to the dance? It seemed a bit drastic to me – flying some one all the way from Phoenix to Forks just to attend a crappy school dance, but maybe there was more to it then that – maybe she wanted to be sure none of the Forks boys would ask her. Like me? The anger shot down my spine.

The rest of the lunch period, I was livid. I knew it was irrational – why should the fact Be- _she_was talking to boys bother me? Finally the bell rang. I leapt up and practically sprinted from the cafeteria, not knowing how much longer my self-restraint would hold out.

I reached the Biology building before anyone else, in a dark mood. After a while, the classroom began to fill with students, and eventually I heard the telltale signs of Bella sitting down beside me. I scowled even more darkly, but otherwise ignored her, and focused on the teacher, who had begun the lesson.

"Today, we will be using the microscopes. I don't have enough for each individual student, so you're going to have to pair up. Everyone will be working with the person beside them," drawled the teacher.

"No way!" I hissed through my teeth. He expected me to work with _her?_ No. Not happening. I raised my hand quickly.

"Yes, Mr. Cullen?" said the teacher upon seeing my raised hand.

"Could we pick our own partners? Or work alone? Or… anything?" I asked desperately. Hell would freeze over before I worked with Bella. Bella with her goddamned Phoenix _boyfriend._

"No, I think not Mr. Cullen. It's good to broaden your horizons, work with new people," and he continued on with the lesson, not even giving my request a second thought. Bastard.

"Edward," I heard from beside me. What I felt when Bella said my name was the oddest mixture of emotions. Initially, attraction – it sounded so delicious rolling off her tongue. The attraction was quickly overruled by anger, however, when I remembered that she was so repulsed by me, she had to invite a boyfriend from half way across the country to a school dance so that I wouldn't ask her.

Like that would ever happen, anyways.

"What," I said as flatly as I could manage, determined to let neither emotions show in my voice.

"Well… maybe we should call a truce? I'm not saying we should be friends, but just not… enemies. It's really just a pain in the ass," she said, her voice shaking slightly.

At this point I turned to face her. I could tell form the look in her eye that she expected me to accept, and that everything would then be fine and dandy.

I let out a snort of laughter. Not happening.

"It's a little late for that, _Bella,_" I said coldly, sneering her name. She looked shocked, then… livid.

"You bastard!" she screamed, more loudly than I had expected – instantly she had the whole classes attention, "I apologize to you and you _laugh _at me?"

I laughed coldly again, taking strange pleasure in the fact that I could piss her off.

"Bull shit. That wasn't an apology – you're embarrassed by what you said before, and too proud to say sorry for it. And even if you _did_, there's no way in_ hell_ I'd accept!" I snapped, thinking more of her phone conversation than of her accusing me of being a man whore.

A second later we were both out of our seats, facing each other. We were very close… only half a foot of space separated me from Bella, her chest heaving in indignation and anger. It was kind of sexy…

_Shut up!_ I screamed at myself mentally.

"I would never apologize to you, you conceited fu-," she screamed more loudly than ever. To my surprise, she was cut off by a shrill shrieking sound. A… whistle? I glanced at the teacher, and to my surprise, saw he did indeed have a whistle in his mouth.

I wondered vaguely why on earth he had a whistle with him.

Everyone was too surprised to move. Bella and I remained standing and facing each other while the teacher (whose face had turned purple from rage) scrawled a hasty note.

"Take…To…The office…Go…Now…" he managed to stutter, to livid to form a coherent sentence. I took the note, than hastily followed his instruction, wondering idly if he was going to go into cardiac arrest.

Only when we were both outside did I realize this meant I was going to be alone with Bella?

We walked quickly, not speaking, or even looking at each other for that matter. It was so awkward I was almost glad to reach the tiny office.

My relief quickly turned to horror after I handed the secretary the note, and watched her eyes bulge as she read through it. I gulped nervously.

This most definitely wasn't the first time I had been sent to the office, but even when I had plugged every toilet in the boys washroom with toilet paper she hadn't looked this mad.

"Is this true?" she squeaked, horrified. I mentally slapped myself for not having read the note before we got here.

"No, he made it sound worse than it was. That's not actually what happened," said Bella hastily. I knew she was lying – she had no more knowledge of what our teacher had written than I did.

"So you two didn't have a screaming match in the middle of a lesson, use foul language and disrupt the class?" snapped the secretary, glaring at Bella.

"Oh…" she said, chuckling softly, "I guess that is what happened."

I almost smiled, but caught myself just in time.

"This is no laughing matter, Ms. Swan. I can see from your record that they let you run wild in Phoenix, but I assure you that will not be the case here. And as for _you,_" she said, glaring at me now, "This is one strike too many. If I had a penny for every time you were sent to this office… You will both be serving an hour long detention after school tomorrow."

I quickly smothered my grin. An hour of detention? That was pathetic. And here I had actually been _worried_…

"Let me finish. As I was saying, you will both be serving hour-long detentions after school… for a month. Starting tomorrow – we have an important meeting tonight, so nobody would be able to watch you."

I felt my grin slide from my face. A month. A month of detentions. With Bella. A month…

"There's no disputing it," she said smugly, upon seeing our identical looks of horror.

We remained in the office until the bell rang for last period, when the secretary (still smiling smugly) finally let us leave.

"This is ridiculous!" I snapped, the second we exited the tiny room.

"I know! The worst I ever got back home was a three-day suspension. And this is my first 'strike' in Forks!" Bella agreed, as angry as I was.

"This is –" it was at this point I remembered who I was talking to. My throat seemed to seize up, keeping me from making another sound. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella look at me, confused. After a moment, when I still hadn't continued speaking, she looked away, shrugging.

We didn't speak again, and soon went our separate ways to our final period class.

Final period passed quickly. Word of Bella and my screaming match had spread through the school like wildfire. Every ten seconds or so, a classmate would turn in their seat and stare at me excitedly. All they did was stare, though – they looked too frightened to actually approach me.

Finally school was over. I rushed to my Volvo, not wanting to have to explain what happened to anybody, except my family and friends. I was the first in my car, so sat silently in the front seat, waiting.

I didn't turn my head when I heard the back door open. That is, until I heard a scream and the sound of someone being thrown forcibly inside.

"What the hell are you guys – oh," Oh didn't quite cover it. Bella was splayed across the backseat; her head raised a fraction of an inch, staring at me nervously.

I had forgotten about the girl's night. Great.

Without another word, I turned back to face the front, and tuned the others out, determined to not lose control like I had in class.

With Alice sitting in his usual seat in the back of the car, Emmett was forced to slide into the passenger side. I wasn't exactly sure how Jasper was going to get home, but my car was full – he'd just have to find his own way.

I did feel bad, but I didn't know how long I would be able to last with Bella sitting behind me.

I drove faster than usual (which is saying something) and reached my house in record time.

When I had parked in front of the house, there was a burst of laughter from Alice, Rosalie and Emmett. I didn't turn to see what was so funny, just remained seated, waiting (slightly impatiently) for the girls to get out.

They did so soon enough. I had expected Emmett to get out with them, but he remained in passenger seat until they had gone inside. Only then did he speak:

"Are you gonna be okay?" he asked, concern coloring his tone. I turned to face him.

"I don't know," I said genuinely. He studied my face for an instant, but realizing he wasn't going to get any more of a reply, nodded once and followed to girls into the house.

I had no intentions of following him – I didn't want to risk running into Bella. Instead, I slid in a CD and sat in my car, leaning my head back and closing my eyes, letting the soothing music lull me to sleep.

I was awoken by a shrill beeping sound. I opened my eyes slowly, the looked around sluggishly for the source of the annoying beep. I soon found it – my cell phone. I flicked it open and looked at the screen.

_New text message from: Alice._ I groaned, and then read it:

Edward. Look, don't worry. I'll keep her in my room so you won't run into each other. You owe me. Go get us a pizza.

I groaned. How annoying. After a minutes deliberation, however, decided it was worth it. No run-ins with Bella in exchange for a pizza? Sure. Why not.

I sped off to the pizza shop, and picked up one of the 'hot and ready' pizzas, then returned home, wanting nothing more than to go lie down in my comfortable bed.

I arrived home and brought the pizza upstairs to Alice's room, assuming that was where they would be. I was right – I could hear them giggling behind the closed door.

I was about to knock, when I heard what they were talking about. Bella was telling Alice and Rosalie about Biology class.

I froze, and then pressed my ear against the door. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help wanting to know Bella's take on what had happened. To my dismay, I realized she had just finished her tale.

"I knew Jessica was lying," I heard Rosalie say in mock-sadness, "she told me you and Edward got it on in the middle of the classroom." There was a burst of laughter from her and Alice.

I clenched the pizza box tightly, silently damning Jessica to the deepest pits of hell for telling such stories. What would Bella think of that? I listened more intently.

"Not funny," she said, sounding torn between amusement and annoyance. No, it most definitely was _not _funny.

They were silent for a full ten seconds, and then suddenly they all simultaneously burst into laughter. I frowned, annoyed I couldn't know what had made them laugh.

I decided I had eavesdropped enough, and opened the door.

They were sitting in a circle on the floor, a tub of ice cream and three spoons between them. They were still laughing.

"Here's your pizza, Alice. You owe me seven-fifty," I said, still annoyed. A second later Rosalie jumped up and took the pizza from me.

"Thank you, Mr. Cullen. Now tell me, who did you get it on with? Oops – I mean, what did you get on it? The pizza, I mean," Rosalie smiled sweetly. I grimaced, knowing exactly what she was referring to, though they had no way of knowing that. Alice and Bella both burst into laughter.

Was this funny for her? I thought she had just said it wasn't! I frowned, then turned and stalked from the room, completely confused, and annoyed. I heard their door slam behind me.

I retreated to my room, slamming the door behind me and then collapsed on my bed. As long as I stayed in here, and they stayed in there, it would be fine. I'd get through this. Even though I had slept in the car, I felt exhausted. I let my eyelids close, and before I knew it, had once again fallen asleep.

I had a strange dream.

I was lying in a bed in a stone cavern, completely alone. I tried getting up, but found myself chained down.

"Help!" I had cried, my voice echoing eerily off the stone walls, "Somebody help me!"

At that point I heard a high-pitched giggle.

"Is somebody there?" I had asked, illogically afraid. The only answer was another giggle, louder than the first.

Suddenly, the laughter and giggling became thunderous. All around me, yet I couldn't find the source of the noise.

Then I woke up.

It took me a second to realize I was no longer asleep. For a moment, my dark room became the stone cave, and my sheets became my restraints, holding me down… In fact, I could even still hear the maniacal giggling.

Soon, however, my eyes adjusted, and I recognized my familiar belongings, and that my restraints were nothing more than woven cotton.

Why then, could I still here the laughter?

There was another burst of it, louder than ever. It sounded like it was coming from down the hall, near Alice's room.

Oh. Of course. I had forgotten about the 'girls night'.

I glanced at the clock – it was three-thirty in the morning. I tried rolling over and going back to sleep, but it was too late – I was wide awake now. I groaned, silently cursing Alice and her friends, before crawling out of bed.

I stood uncertainly in the middle o my room for a moment. What could I do to pass the time? No music – that would only wake the rest of the house. I could read… but I had a feeling no book would be able to hold my interest at the moment. I needed something that would completely occupy my mind…

I walked over to my desk, and found my unfinished algebra work. Perfect.

The algebra took a good thirty minutes. I sighed, happy I had finally finished. I quickly wrote my name on the corner of my paper before I forgot, then walked over to my huge CD collection, deciding to re-organize them in a pathetic attempt to pass the time.

This kept me occupied for about half an hour. Finally, I felt my eyes begin to droop, and decided to try going back to sleep.

I was about to lie down, when I remembered that I was still in my school clothes, and that I hadn't brushed my teeth. I exited my room, leaving the light on and closing the door behind me, and quickly made my way to the bathroom. I gently closed and locked the bathroom door, before turning to the sink to brush my teeth and wash my face.

I finished up by going to the washroom. I flushed to toilet and washed my hands, hating how loud the sound seemed in the silent house. I flicked off the bathroom light, and then mad my way back to my room, eager to get to sleep.

I was just about to turn the handle, when I thought I heard the sound of footsteps from inside my room. I hesitated only a moment, then wrenched open the door, glancing around hurriedly.

Huh. No one was there.

I knew I had probably just imagined the sound, but still couldn't help myself from wandering around aimlessly, checking every corner, behind my leather couch, under my bed, in my closet. I knew I was probably acting slightly psychotically, but couldn't help myself.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of searching my room, I realized I was being silly. Who would be in my room at five in the morning? No one. I just needed to get to bed – I was probably tired and imagining things.

I made my way over to my desk, pulling my shirt off over my head as I did so. Once it was off, I dropped it on top of my homework, feeling to lazy to hang it up in my closet like I was supposed to.

I took a step back, and then continued undressing. I popped the button on my jeans, and then let the drop before kicking them in a pile beside my bed.

A second later, I heard what sounded like a gasp. And it came from under my desk.

My previous suspicions rushed back, and I squatted down to find the source of the noise, my heart beating quickly. Was it a burglar? Emmett, being an idiot? Was it a ghost? Was I losing my mind?

No. It was Bella Swan.

Bella Swan, squatting under my desk.

Bella Swan, whose face was a mere inches from mine.

I managed to muffle the cry of shock that threatened to slip through my lips, but couldn't help myself form jumping back in surprise. I lost my balance, and ended up sitting a few feet away, still staring at Bella, on my backside. I remembered I was only wearing a pair of red boxers.

We stared at each other for a while, shock mirrored in both of our faces. After a moment, I felt a new emotion bubble inside of me – anger. Hadn't Alice promised I wouldn't even have to _see_ Bella tonight? Well, I did better than see her – I found her under my desk at five in the morning.

"Oops," I said finally, "I guess this isn't the bathroom."

No, it most certainly isn't.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry.

Love, 'the now fourteen-year-old' Hillroy


	11. Sorry Guys

Hey guys,

I figured that instead of feeling terrible after reading all your reviews (not because you guys are mean - of course not! Only because every one says 'Please Update soon!' and it makes me feel terrible that I haven't yet). I'm really sorry, but I barely have time to write school assignments, much less pleasure stories.

Of course I'll continue writing this story, and hopefully finish it eventually, but right now I just don't have the time. School, soccer, babysitting, and not to mention my social life, which is beginning to shrivel like last week's grapes are pretty much the only things capturing my attention at the moment.

So I'm really sorry guys, but the fastest I can get the next chapter out is probably near the end of May. I'll try to find more time to work on it and get it out sooner, but no guarantees.

And one more thing - could you please review and put "Ohio Is For Lovers" somewhere in your review, to prove that you've read this author's note (that's a song by the way, by Hawthorne Heights. I suggest you download it). Thanks :)

Sorry,  
love,

Hillroy

ps.  
I'm really sorry about this. I always hated it when people post author's notes instead of chapters, but this seemed inevitable. I had to let you guys know that I hadn't forgotten about this story (which I most certainly haven't), and this seemed like the only way. Sorry again :(


	12. EPOV: Blood, Clothes, and Blushes

Okay. I know, I know - I said May. And it's July. Now, as much as I hate to say this, you might have to expect the same thing for all updates this summer - because really, I want to make the most of the vacation, and you should all do the same. :)

Anyways, I could keep on listing excuses as to why this took so long, but I think you'd all jsut rather read the chapter.

So here it is!

* * *

Last time:

_We stared at each other for a while, shock mirrored in both of our faces. After a moment, I felt a new emotion bubble inside of me – anger. Hadn't Alice promised I wouldn't even have to see Bella tonight? Well, I did better than see her – I found her under my desk at five in the morning._

"_Oops," she said finally, "I guess this isn't the bathroom."_

_No, it most certainly isn't._

EPOV

The silence stretched on until it was almost unendurable. Though I was aching to say something, _anything, _I restrained myself, deciding to let Bella go first. She had some explaining to do.

"I'll just go," she said finally, pulling herself out from under my desk. I couldn't help the way my eyes lingered on her short, black pyjama shorts as she stood and headed for the door.

But wait – she was just going to leave? Without even explaining why she was hiding in my room in the early hours of the morning?

Not happening.

"Wait," I said, feeling marginally more calm now knowing I would be getting some answers. She froze, her back to me. A moment later, she turned to face me.

"Yes?" she said slowly. She sounded almost… nervous.

Now I had a choice. I could either ask her why she was in my room – tempting – or I could ask her something that, oddly, seemed even more pressing to me at the moment. I decided on the latter.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" I asked, thinking of her phone call. I almost smiled at her expression – judging by it, this was most definitely not what she had been expecting.

"Um… no," she said, apparently too off-guard to say anything smart.

The feeling that coursed through my body after hearing that was crippling – at that moment, I was glad to be sitting on the floor, for I knew had I been standing I would probably have fallen over. Just to be sure of her honesty, I studied her face carefully.

Other than stunning beauty, all I could see on her face was confusion. None of the guiltiness that came hand in hand with a lie. I smiled, convinced of her honesty, and dropped my gaze.

"You can go now," I said softly, a smile still playing on my lips. She turned obediently and made her way towards the door. I was glad she was going without a fight – all these emotions were very confusing, especially when feeling them for your 'enemy'.

Of course it was too good to be true – before she had reached the door, she turned around.

"Why did you want to know _that?_" she asked, curiosity colouring her tone. I said nothing, silently deliberating what to tell her. The truth? That I was insanely jealous the second I thought she liked another boy? Of course not. But I needed to think of _something_…

I looked up at her face, hoping she hadn't noticed how hard I was trying to come up with a suitable explanation. To my surprise, her eyes were not on my face.

She was staring at my_ body._

I couldn't help myself – I smirked. It seemed a very odd thing for her to do, staring at her enemy like that … My smirk became more pronounced.

Suddenly, as though realizing what she had been doing, her eyes snapped back to my face.

I hadn't thought it possible for a human to actually turn fire-engine red, but Bella proved me wrong when she realized I had seen her 'checking me out'.

"I'm surprised at you, Swan. I didn't imagine you a peeping tom," I said, smirking hugely at her expression when she realized I was suggesting she hid in my room to watch me change.

"I'm not!" she hissed, still bright red, "I thought this was the bathroom."

I almost laughed. The bathroom?

"Really? Well, I can see it's an easy mistake to make. There's a bed, a computer desk, CD shelves… yes, my room certainly does resemble a bathroom," I taunted. The corners of her mouth turned down, and she lowered her eyebrows slightly – Bella's classic 'pissed off' look.

"Look," she growled, a bit loudly, "I was looking for the bathroom. I came in here by mistake. Then you came back, and I didn't want you to find me in your room. So I… hid," she said lamely. I could tell by her expression that even to her it sounded ridiculous.

"Okay. I guess I forgive you," I said, deciding I had tortured her enough for my amusement. For now, anyways.

"I don't think I apologized," she said icily. I frowned, reminded of our argument earlier today.

"You did today," I pointed out. This only seemed to anger her further.

"And I took it back!" she snapped, turning on her heel and storming out of the room.

I frowned to myself – I couldn't just let her leave, as angry at me as ever. It had seemed like we were making some progress tonight; I couldn't waste it all by having her leave in a huff.

I stood up and followed her silently into the hallway. She was already at Alice's door by the time I had followed her.

"Bel-" I began, then stopped myself – who knew if calling her by her first name would set her off? She was like a ticking bomb. I decided last names were probably safer.

"Swan. Just be honest with me – why do you hate me?"

I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping for an honest response. Of course that wasn't what I got.

"Go to hell, Edward Cullen."

Without giving me time to say another word, she flung open Alice's door and stormed inside.

I sighed, defeated. I was about to turn back to my room, when I heard her scream.

I was instantly in front of the door, wondering what had happened. Had she tripped? Was she okay? My worrying stopped abruptly when I saw what had actually happened.

She had walked through the wrong door – into the closet, to be exact. Alice's room was the next one down.

She was flapping her arms hysterically, covered head to toe in Esme's favourite white towels.

I couldn't help myself – I laughed. It had to be one of the most hilarious things I had ever seen, Bella flailing around, screaming, covered in a dozen huge fluffy towels.

"What the hell! It's not funny! Get them off of me!" she screamed. She obviously had no idea what was 'attacking' her. A second later she stepped on one of the towels, and fell to the ground with a grunt.

I was almost hyperventilating from laughing so hard.

"G-get what off of you? The t-towels?" I managed to stutter between bursts of laughter.

As soon as I said this, she stopped flapping her arms and looked down. Her expression upon realizing she had walked into a towel closet sent me into another round of hysterical laughter.

A bit too hysterical, actually – by the time I recovered, she had disappeared into Alice's room, leaving me alone in the middle of the hallway.

At this point I mentally slapped myself. What was wrong with me? I had been actually talking to Bella. Talking! No screaming involved whatsoever! And now I had completely blown it by acting like a half-drunk hyena.

With a sigh, I made my way back to my room, and spread out on my bed, completely exhausted.

Though I was certain I would be lying in bed for hours mulling over what had happened tonight, I was surprised. An image of Bella crossed my mind for a fraction of a second, and then I was pulled into sleep.

A fraction of a second was still all it took for me to dream of nothing but her that night.

* * *

I woke up surprisingly early, and feeling surprisingly refreshed.

I rolled out of bed and pulled on an old shirt, smiling slightly. Upon seeing the rare beam of sunlight that was pouring through my wall-sized window, my smile became more pronounced.

After a few minutes of soaking up the sun, my stomach grumbled hugely, telling me it was breakfast time.

I was surprised to find that I was the first one downstairs. Even on weekends Alice was almost always up at the crack of dawn. I supposed the sleepover must have had an affect on her internal clock.

I reached the kitchen, and instinctively got myself a bowl of cereal, then plopped down at the kitchen table to eat it. To my surprise, I found myself beginning to hum a tune.

At this point, I became slightly worried. Was this all because of last night? Did Bella's presence really have this huge of an effect on me? And if she was the cause of all this early-morning bliss, then the effect _was _huge. Normally in the morning it would be more like me to grumble and moan than to _hum_.

_Oh well, _I thought to myself, _as long as nobody finds out about this, I'll be fine. I'm perfectly capable of keeping Bella Swan's affect on me a secret._

"Are you _humming?_" said an incredulous voice from behind me.

Crap.

"N-no," I stammered, hastily clamping my jaw, though I knew I was too late. I sighed, and then turned to face the one who had caught me in the midst of my dark deed.

Alice – of course.

She was staring at me, one eyebrow quirked up. I knew she was waiting for an explanation.

"I had a good sleep," I said, my tone defensive. I knew that there was no way she would believe such a feeble lie.

"Right. I definitely believe you," she said, dripping sarcasm. I lowered my gaze to my half-finished bowl of cereal, stubbornly avoiding her face. After a moment, she sighed.

"Fine. Don't tell me. But mark my words – sooner or later I'll find out your little secret."

I didn't doubt her.

Without another word, she turned on her heel, leaving the kitchen and making her way back upstairs.

* * *

An hour later, I was ready to kill myself out of sheer boredom. Earlier in the afternoon, Alice, Rosalie and Bella (I had made sure I was out of view as the latter made her way downstairs) had left the house for a shopping excursion.

Carlisle had left for the hospital soon after, and on the rare sunny day such as today, Esme could be found nowhere other than in the midst of her precious flowers and plants.

Emmett was still sleeping. This amazed me, even more than his ability to eat his weight in food ten times over, throw a football farther than any other in Forks, and burp the 'Family Guy' theme song – Emmett seemed to spend the majority of his life in a deep slumber.

Since my house and its inhabitants were terribly boring, I decided to call Jasper, and hopefully escape to his house for awhile. He answered on the first ring.

"Hello?" said Jasper. I instantly recognized his deep voice.

"Hey. It's Edward," I replied.

"Oh, hey! How was last night?" he asked. Even over the phone I could tell his tone was sympathetic.

"Great," I said, with no hint of sarcasm. Jasper seemed to realize this.

"What do you…?" he began. I cut him off.

"Never mind, I'll tell you in person. Can we hang out at your house?" I asked, desperate to get out of my own.

"Not unless you want to spend the afternoon getting your cheeks pinched by fussy old ladies. My mom's having a garden party."

I shuddered at the mere thought.

"Alright, my house then. See you in five?"

"Sounds good. 'Bye," he said, hanging up soon after I uttered a similar farewell.

After what felt like no time at all, the doorbell rang. That was the good thing about Jasper – he never kept you waiting. I let him in, and we both instinctively turned toward the couch to play video games.

"So," he said, his voice covered slightly by the increasingly hectic 'clicks' from the controllers, "Care to explain why last night was so 'great'?"

I laughed slightly at his disbelieving tone before responding.

"It was sort of strange," I admitted. He shrugged.

"I can deal with strange. Go ahead."

So without further ado, I launched into the tale of the previous night, leaving out nothing.

By the time I had finished, he was red from laughing.

"So she actually walked into a towel closet?" he asked, bursting into laughter again. I nodded, chuckling.

"It was quite a night," I said, still smiling. Jasper nodded in agreement. He had just opened his mouth again to speak when there was a huge thumping sound from directly above our heads.

"Emmett," we both muttered at the same time. I paused the game and stood up, intent on finding out what on earth my brother had done this time. Jasper followed close behind.

We jogged upstairs and to the end of the hall, turning left into Emmett's room.

"What the hell are you doing, man? It sounded like a rhino jumping around in here," said Jasper conversationally. I laughed, while glancing around the room to find Emmett. To my surprise, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Emmett?" I asked, confused.

"Shut up," came a slightly muffled voice from the corner of the room. Both Jasper and my head instinctively turned to find the source of the noise.

It was Emmett. He was crouched in the far corner, holding what appeared to be a box of tissues, though it had been squeezed out of shape by his vice-like grip.

"Dude, what the hell?" I asked, exasperated. Being related to him, I was used to Emmett's strange antics, but this took the cake.

"There's a spider!" he hissed, his voice raising an octave.

A second later, me and Jasper were rolling on the ground, clutching our sides.

"W-was that that big thumping sound? You were jumping around, trying to catch a sp-spider…" Jasper's laughter muffled out the rest of his sentence. Emmett's face turned bright red.

"It was really fast! One second it was on my dresser, the next it was on the wall! I had to keep up with it!" he tried to explain, still blushing profusely. We only laughed harder.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, Jasper and I managed to calm down, though Emmett was still slightly red. We returned downstairs to continue playing the video game, Emmett grabbing the spare controller and plopping himself down on my other side.

We spent the next couple of hours amusing ourselves by blasting mutants, and eating an assortment of rather disgusting concoctions. I re-told my adventure from last night for Emmett, who, like Jasper, found it extremely amusing.

"I can't believe she hid under your desk. Can you say cree-py," he said, breaking the word into two separate syllables. We laughed.

"But Edward, does this mean you like –," He was interrupted by the banging open of the front door. We all turned to see an exhausted looking Alice, her arms over-flowing with clothing bags.

"Well, don't just sit there," she said, upon spotting us, "get up and help me with these bags!"

No one dared argue with her. We were all instantly on our feet, and obediently relieving her of her purchases. I grabbed as many as I could carry, and was about to reach for another when Alice stopped me.

"Wait! That one's Bella's. Damn, I knew she didn't get all her bags. Oh well – just put it on my bed, away form the rest." I sighed, but did as she said.

Due to Alice's talking-to, by the time I reached her room, Jasper and Emmett had already deposited their armful of bags and left. Probably hidden in Emmett's bedroom, to avoid Alice in case she asked anything else of us, I thought.

I obediently placed all Alice's bags on the ground in her huge walk-in closet. The only remaining bag was the one that Alice said belonged to Bella – I decided to leave it on the bed, where Alice would surely find it.

I had placed the bag on the foot of the bed when the name stamped on the outside made me stop dead in my tracks. Victoria's Secret.

I felt my heartbeat accelerate. Bella shopped at _Victoria's Secret? _I wondered what she had bought… I mentally slapped myself. It was none of my business, I knew that, but that didn't stop the way my hands were itching to pry open the bag and dump its contents on the bed.

I had just taken a hesitant step forward, when I heard quick footsteps coming down the hall. I hastily jumped as far from the bag as Alice's room would allow, and stuck my hands in my pockets, to hide the fact they were shaking and slightly sweaty. A second later, Alice's tiny frame appeared in the doorway.

"There you are! The other two are hiding out in Emmett's room, the cowards…" she said, rolling her eyes. My stance remained rigid, and I stole a quick glance at Bella's bag out of the corner of my eye.

Not quick enough, apparently.

When I looked back at Alice's face, she was wearing the oddest look. It seemed like a mix of surprise, disgust, and amusement.

"So," she said, her tone determinedly nonchalant, "Did you see what Bella bought?" I felt myself turning red.

"No! I wouldn't look through her stuff. Ever. Especially from… from _that _store. No. No way," I knew I was rambling, and blushing more than ever. Alice smiled.

"Alright, the jig is up. You are totally in love with her. Now since she wouldn't tell me what happened last night, you're going to. And don't skimp on the details."

I sighed in resignation, and for the third time today, told the tale of Bella's late night wanderings.

Through out the story, Alice reacted much the same was as Jasper, except she let out no laughter when I told how Bella had walked into the closet. She simply shook her head, smiling slightly at her friend's antics. When I had finished, she remained silent for a full two minutes.

"Well," she said finally, "I figured something like this would happen eventually. You two have undeniable chemistry."

I stared at her, seriously questioning her sanity.

"Great chemistry? Me and Bella? We spend the majority of our time screaming at each other!" I exclaimed. She nodded.

"Exactly. Sexual tension. You two are complete opposites, and everyone knows opposites attract."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't voice my disbelief aloud.

"Well, you might be right about me, but does it even matter? Bella still feels the exact same as she used to," I said slowly.

She was bouncing up and down by the time I had finished speaking.

"But that's where you're wrong! If what you're saying about last night is true, and I'm sure it is, then it seems you're both making some progress. You managed to have a decent conversation, with no yelling, right? If only you hadn't ruined it by laughing at her," she said, frowning. I rolled my eyes again.

"Whatever, it was funny. But look, you got what you wanted – I like her. Now, how do I make her like me back?" I asked, aware that I was sounding slightly desperate.

"Just give me time to work out a game plan. But don't you worry, you know how great I am at playing matchmaker. I got Emmett and Rosalie together, _and _Jasper and I. So don't you worry your pretty little head over it, brother dear, all will be well in the end."

Her tone clearly said the subject was closed, so I hastily left the room.

I felt much better now, after getting the fact that I liked Bella in a more-than-friends way off my chest. And of course Alice's promise to help me get into her good books was no weight on my shoulders.

I ran lithely down the hall, finding Emmett and Jasper holed away just like Alice and I had suspected. They seemed instantly aware of my light-heartedness, but thankfully didn't ask. That was the great thing about guy friends – they didn't feel the need to pry.

The rest of the day passed easily, in the company of two of my favourite people. We alternated between video games, football, and eating, which kept us more than occupied.

Before I knew it, the inky blackness of night had blotted out he sun, making way for the pinpricks of light that were stars.

"Whoa, I didn't notice how late it was!" Emmett called after being smacked in the face with a football – he had been unable to see it coming due to the darkness.

"Ya, I know. I should get home before my mom freaks out," Jasper said, rolling his eyes at his mom's over-protectiveness.

"Alright. See you later," I said, as Jasper made his was to his car. He opened the window and waved before speeding away, leaving Emmett and I standing outside.

"Alright, I'm bushed," Emmett said, yawning loudly. I stared at him incredulously.

"How can you be tired? You slept 'til noon!" He shrugged.

"I'm a growing boy, I need my slumber," he said offhandedly. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. Let's go inside, then."

True to his word, when we got inside Emmett went straight to his room. I patrolled the house, desperate for something to do, but nothing could hold my interest. Finally, though not particularly tired, I decided to follow Emmett's example and turn in early.

* * *

The next day was cloudy. I couldn't help feeling slightly let-down – I had been hoping for another sunny day.

As usual, I drove my friends and siblings to school, though for once we were early enough to not have to break the speed limit by 50 kilometres an hour.

The first half of the day passed slowly. I didn't once see Bella, so when lunch came I was beyond nervous to see how she would react to me.

Would she pretend like Saturday night never happened? Would he hate me more than ever? Would she perhaps completely ignore me? The possibilities buzzed around my brain like and annoying fly.

I entered the cafeteria alone, and made my way to our usual table. Several girls stared at me when I passed, but as I had learned from past experience, I pointedly ignored them.

Only when I reached the table did I realize Bella wasn't there. I sat down next to Alice.

"Er, Alice – where's Bella?" I asked quietly, hoping the others wouldn't hear.

"You mean you don't know? My god, you must have been under a rock – it's been spreading through the school like wild fire," she said, giving me a superior look. I grimaced slightly.

"No, I _didn't_ hear. So you should just tell me."

"Well, Bella…," she giggled before continuing, "Bella broke Lauren's nose!"

I stared at her.

"She _what?_" I asked, completely stunned.

"Yea! She punched her in the face and broke her nose!" Alice said, trying (and failing) to keep the smile off her face.

I burst into laughter, and was soon joined by the rest of our table.

Bella had punched Lauren in the face… Oh, what I would give to see _that._ The rest of our lunchtime conversation (and it seemed all the other students' as well) was completely focused on Bella.

"But," I said, slightly out of breath from laughing, "Why did she do it? Did Lauren say something to her?"

Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, and Alice all shrugged.

"None of us were there. I just heard the story from Angela."

"But dude, don't you have a detention with her tonight? You can ask her then," said Emmett through a mouthful of fries. I felt my stomach do an odd little flip.

I had completely forgotten – detention. One hour locked in with Bella, and I had no idea how she would react to me… should I sit near her, or as far as the room would allow? Should I strike up a conversation, or just allow us to sit there in silence. Jasper seemed to read the distress on my face, for he spoke.

"It'll be fine, man. Don't worry." I smiled tightly, dreading the end of school despite his words.

The rest of the day passed quickly – much, much too quickly. Before I knew it, I was outside the office, one hand raised towards the doorknob.

I took a deep, calming breath – at that moment I would have given anything to know how she felt about me – and then opened the door.

I looked quickly around the office – it was empty except for the secretary, sitting behind her desk.

"Here for your detention, right Mr. Cullen?" she said. I nodded briskly, wondering if Bella was already here, or if I had arrived before her. Or if she was even coming at all.

"Right this way, then," said the secretary, getting to her feet. She led me around a corner, and stopped in front of a door marked "Detainment".

"Now, Ms. Swan," she sneered the name, and I felt a twinge of annoyance, "is already in there. I expect no talking from either of you, and _no mischief. _Do you understand?" I nodded again, which seemed to satisfy.

Without further ado, she opened the door and with a gesture of her hand told me to enter. I obliged. Before I had taken two steps I heard the sharp click of the door shutting behind me.

I looked around hesitantly, sweeping the room for Bella.

As usual, she looked stunning, and left me short of breath.

I wondered idly how I was going to survive a month of this, when I had already lost my cool ten seconds in.


	13. YAY sorry for the lack of creativity

Oh My Bog. You can't be too mad, right...? I mean, atleast i finally got a chapter out.. Please don't hurt me (though I deserve it).

the hoping-you-people-are-forgiving Hillroy

* * *

Last time:

_Finally the last bell rang. I jumped up from my seat beside a potted plant, intending to leave this wretched school as quickly as possible, when I heard a voice behind me._

"_Ah, ah, ah, Isabella. Trying to cut detention?" I turned to see the secretary smiling sickly at me._

_I groaned aloud – I had almost forgotten._

_Just a perfect ending to a perfect day, I thought grimly – spending an hour locked in a room with Edward Cullen._

BPOV

I had been sitting silently for barely five minutes when I heard the door open. I turned quickly in my seat to get a look at the door.

Although I was expecting Edward's arrival, the sight of him still made me jump. Though I hated to admit it, he looked good – his clothes were fitted, his complexion pale, and his hair had the tousled look only someone like Edward good accomplish without trying.

The door closed behind him with a sharp click a moment later. It was completely silent as he made his way to a seat on the complete opposite side of the room from my own.

Fifteen minutes later, and nothing had changed. The room was completely silent except for the ticking second hand of a circular, wall-mounted clock and the wind pounding against the windows, which were curtained in boring beige.

Another ten minutes passed sluggishly. The silence was really beginning to get to me. Why couldn't they have atleast let me bring my ipod? And why were we alone in here? Shouldn't there be some teacher supervising us? Or assigning us work? Or _anything?_

I cautiously glanced over at Edward. He was staring straight ahead, seeming completely cool and unbothered. It made me more anxious. Was he even _human?_ He didn't even seem bored. Unbelievable!

"That's it," I said, standing up too quickly and knocking my chair over backwards, "I'm out of here before I carve out my eyeballs just for something to do."

He glanced at me, surprised.

"Getting out? How? They locked the door after us."

I paused. That could be a slight problem. It was once again silent as I tried to come up with another plan. The wind howled louder outside. I wondered idly if it would break the windows.

Wait, that was perfect – the windows! I smiled and made my towards them, pulling away the beige curtains once I had approached. Edward laughed from somewhere behind me.

"You're going to crawl out the window?" he asked, amused.

"Yup." I opened the window easily, smiling to myself – the teacher hadn't even thought to lock it. I threw one leg out, but hesitated before completely jumping. I half glanced in Edward's direction, and noticed he hadn't moved.

"You're staying here? Well, have fun wasting your day then."

Without waiting for a reply, I threw my other leg out the window and landed the short drop squarely on my feet.

I had only taken a few steps in the direction of the school parking lot (which was, by now, all but empty) when there was a light thump from behind me.

"Decided detention wasn't the best way to spend your day after all?" I asked without looking behind me.

"I have finally seen the light," Edward chuckled softly. I made no reply, only increased my pace so that I was two strides ahead of him.

When we reached the parking lot we went our separate ways to our own respective vehicles without further acknowledgement.

Just before I reached my car, a heavy raindrop landed on my forehead, quickly followed by a second and third. By the time I managed to unlock and open the door, I was almost completely soaked.

I sighed contentedly once I had gotten in and slammed the door against the downpour. I fumbled again with the keys, wanting nothing more than to get home and into some dry clothes.

I shoved the keys harshly into the ignition, mechanically bracing myself for the echoing roar I had come to know and love.

Oddly enough, it didn't come.

I stared down blankly at the keys dangling in the ignition. Maybe I didn't turn it all the way, I thought meekly, and tried again.

This time, an unnatural gurgling sound could be heard above the rain.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," I moaned. Why now? This was definitely God's way of getting back at me for skipping detention.

I sighed dejectedly as I stared out the window. It showed no signs of slowing down any time soon, and knowing Forks, it would probably keep up all night. So what could I do then? Sit out here and wait for a teacher to notice I was missing from detention? No thanks.

What other choices did I have? Walk home? I'd be completely drenched. I groaned. There were no other options that I could think of. I braced myself for the cold and wet and shoved open the door.

I jumped out, slipped on the slick pavement, and basically landed on a silver Volvo.

Edward's silver Volvo, to be exact.

"What the hell?" I called, realized after that there was no way he would hear me through the rain. The passenger door opened.

"Get in," he called. Without thinking, I obliged, closing the door once I had crawled in. I was distinctly aware that I was soaked from head to toe and probably had streaks of black running down my face.

"Why are you still here?" I asked, trying to avoid looking at him head-on.

"I was listening to a CD," he said slowly, "then I saw you getting out of your car to stand in the rain."

"My damn truck won't start," I said unhappily, glancing at him as I spoke, "so I'm walking home."

He looked amused.

"Would you like a drive?" he asked.

I paused before responded as a small battle waged within myself. Should I take the drive and avoid turning into a human swimming pool? Or stay as far away from Edward as possible, like usual…

"Fine," I said after a while, "Drive me home."

He shifted gears without saying a word and the Volvo slid smoothly from the parking lot. I watched my truck in the rear-view mirror until it was out of sight – it looked so sad, alone in the rain…

"I could come back for it after," Edward said, somehow correctly interpreting my silence, "And get Rosalie to take a look at it. It might surprise you, but she has a way with cars."

I smiled involuntarily at the unusually kind gesture.

"Thanks. That would be… helpful."

A short silence followed, neither of us quite sure what to do in each other's company.

"How about some music? I have some CDs in the glove compartment," Edward suggested. I nodded, popping open the glove compartment and withdrawing an oversized CD case. I hesitated slightly before opening it – what kind of music did he listen to? I had no idea. I prayed for nothing too gruesome…

I plucked a CD at random from the case, and felt my jaw drop.

"Linkin Park?" I asked, amazed. Edward glanced at the CD in my hand.

"Ya. Meteora. I have their other CDs in there somewhere too."

"Wow," I mumbled, amazed, as I pulled AC/DC, Green Day, Atreyu, Rise Against and Billy Talent CDs from the case.

"You," I said, bobbing my head to the sound of _The Good Left Undone_, "have great taste in music."

"I like to think so," he laughed.

I smiled. Getting past all my initial prejudice against pretty boys, Edward wasn't really that bad… and really, now that I thought about it… who needed an enemy? Especially when he was Alice's brother. And I had a month of hour long detentions with him to look forward to. Maybe we could just be… neutral.

We chatted amicably for another couple of minutes, before I realized we were outside my house.

"How d'you know where I live?" I asked, confused.

"Forks is tiny. Everyone knows where everyone lives," he said, smiling at my expression.

"I don't, " I pointed out. Edward nodded sagely.

"You," he said slowly, "are an exception."

I wasn't quite sure what to make of his strange tone, so I changed the subject.

"Do you want to go somewhere? Or even just drive around? Charlie's not home yet, and I don't really feel like being alone…" I blushed slightly, realizing a second too late I sounded desperate, and hating it.

Edward nodded (thankfully without a word) and put the car back in gear.

"There's a coffee shop two blocks away."

We arrived in minutes, and less than two later we were inside, steaming mugs in hand.

"So," he said, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

I signalled for him to continue, all the while completely amazed by how comfortable I had become with his presence in the short while we had been together.

"What did Lauren do to deserve a broken nose?" he grinned. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh, she'd been asking for it since I first met her. And I figured if I didn't do it, nobody would."

Edward laughed, shaking his head. "You're different, Bella, I'll give you that."

Suddenly his face darkened.

"So I heard… that you have some friends from Phoenix coming down."

I nodded, grinning.

"Yea, Dan and Kyle."

"Are they… how long are they staying for?"

"They get here on Wednesday, and leave Sunday." I said, slightly confused – why was Edward so interested?

"Any particular reason they're coming?"

I frowned. Did Edward know something? About the band? It was supposed to be a surprise…

"No, nothing in particular… just to catch up," I said, carefully avoiding his eyes. If he _did_ know something was up I wasn't about to give anything else away.

"The dance is this Friday," said Edward, his face hard. I felt my face harden in response.

"Thanks, I didn't know," I said, allowing sarcasm to colour my tone.

"I think there's another reason they're coming," said Edward flatly.

Now I was really confused – if he knew really knew about the band, why was he mad about it? Because I hadn't told him? That was ridiculous, we had only actually started talking today. And plus, who would have told him? The only other people who knew were Alice and Rosalie…

"You're wrong," I said defensively. I continued to avoid looking him in the face.

"Well, you don't have to worry about it anyways," he snapped, "I would never ask you to the stupid dance."

_Whoa._ What?

"Wait, _what?_ Why do you think I invited them?" I asked, completely confused.

"So that you wouldn't have to go to the dance with any _Forks Boys_, that's why."

"You cocky… you arrogant… you really think I would go through all that trouble so that I wouldn't have to go the dance with a _'Forks Boy'_?What, do you not think I'm capable of just saying no? You… You…" I stuttered, struggling for words.

"Well I _know _there's a reason they're coming," he snapped, "I can tell you're lying."

"Well, if you must know, there _is_ a reason, but there's no chance in hell that I'd tell you now!"

I stood up quickly and ran from the coffee shop, only realizing once I was outside that I had no car, and that the rain was still coming down, and hard. I began to walk quickly down the street, embarrassingly aware of the tears mingled with the rain.

He had seemed so nice for awhile. But no, of course he wasn't. He was just another cocky pretty boy incapable of thinking of anything but himself.

_Speak of the devil, _I thought, as Edward's silver Volvo pulled up beside me. The window rolled down.

"Bella! Bella, look at me. I'm sorry! I admit, I… I overreacted. Come on, get in, you'll get pneumonia!" he called, but I refused to look at him.

I kept my head turned pointedly in the other direction, only letting him know I had heard his 'apology' by flipping him off.

He continued to drive along beside me until we reached my street. Finally he gave up, gained speed and disappeared around the corner.

I was glad to see that Charlie was still not home, after catching sight of myself in a mirror. I didn't feel like explaining away the fact that I was soaking wet, with blood shot eyes and bleeding mascara.

I ran upstairs and jumped in the bath as soon as I had rid myself of my drenched clothing, glad to just relax in the warm water.

* * *

The next day at school was the worst day I had ever spent in Forks.

Lauren was already back at school, and wasting no time at all in following through on her promise to make my life miserable.

She had spread the word that I was crazy, and due to this I could hardly walk anywhere without being followed by whispers and sidelong glances.

Alice wasn't at school – I learned later from Rosalie that she had sprained her wrist trying to carry about a hundred pounds worth of clothing to her bedroom. It was so typically Alice. On any normal day I would have laughed, but it seemed far from funny now.

My first periods passed in a blur. I could not deny Lauren had been thorough – even people I would usually interact with (however minutely) wouldn't so much as look at me now. By the time third period came I was seriously considering faking an injury just to go home.

Lunch was terrible. I was too scared to go sit with Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper and Edward, knowing that with Alice gone and Rosalie and Emmett almost constantly making out, I would most certainly be left alone with Edward.

So, being the coward that I am, I reverted to my previous lunch spot, with Jessica, Angela, Ben, Mike and Tyler.

"So," Jessica said, almost as soon as I sat down, "Are you and Edward, like, a _thing?_"

I stared at her, aghast.

"What? No! Who told you that?"

She smirked, as though she knew she had hit a nerve.

"Well, Meghan totally saw you at that little coffee place with him yesterday. She said you two had decided to be, like, _neutered._"

I stared at her.

"Who the hell is Meghan? And _neutered? _You mean neutral? God you're an idiot." I said, rolling my eyes to the ceiling. She either didn't hear the last part, or disregarded it, because she didn't seem at all offended.

"Whatever, you say potato, I say tomato. Anyways, is it true?" she asked, literally on the edge of her seat. I wondered if she would pee herself from all her pent-up excitement.

"No, it is not true. If we were together do you really think I'd be over here, and not with him?"

I left while she was still mulling over this latest bit of information, and headed off to my least favourite class – biology.

I had thought arriving first would have given me the upper hand on facing Edward, but it just about did the opposite. I was a bundle of nerves waiting for him to arrive, not sure what to expect – a screaming match, or the silence, which, at times, could be just as bad?

After what seemed like eons, long after the rest of the class had filed in, Edward appeared. He moved gracefully to his seat, sat down, and then stared pointedly ahead.

_Ah._ Ignorance it was, then.

Class, as it usually was when I was given the silent treatment, was completely eventless. I fled from the room as soon as the bell had rang, a habit I had picked up that day to avoid the stares and murmurs.

I toughed my way through gym class, and when it was finally over, made my way dutifully to the main office for my detention.

"MS SWAN!" a voice bellowed as soon as I entered. I was so taken off-guard I dropped my bag, It landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

"Wha?" I asked, completely stunned. I assumed Ms Cope was the one who had yelled, since her face was red with rage. A second later I noticed Edward in the corner of the room, seeming unsurprised by the secretary's greeting.

"SKIPPING DETENTION," she hollered, louder than ever, "NEVER, IN ALL MY YEARS – THIS EARNS YOU BOTH FOUR MONTHS OF AFTER SCHOOL DETENTIONS."

Without another word Edward and I were escorted to the detention room (I was amused to notice they had equipped the windows with padlocks).

Once again, Edward and I sat on opposite sides of the room, except this time the atmosphere was so thick I felt I could cut it with a knife.

Tomorrow Kyle and Dan get here, I reminded myself, just one more day. That thought was the only thing that got me through that detention. I wondered desperately how I would ever survive four more months.


	14. EPOV

Last time:

_I looked around hesitantly, sweeping the room for Bella._

_As usual, she looked stunning, and left me short of breath._

_I wondered idly how I was going to survive a month of this, when I had already lost my cool ten seconds in._

EPOV

Once I had regained control of my limbs, I shut the door and sat down at the desk furthest from Bella.

And then the waiting began.

Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes… the minute hand must be moving too slowly. It seemed we had been here for an hour at minimum. I managed to contain my sigh of mounting exasperation. Out of the corner of my eye, I cautiously glanced at Bella…

No. Not a good idea. I snapped my head back around to face the front of the classroom and half-heartedly examined the diagram of meiosis that had been left on the blackboard. Prophase I, Metaphase I, Anaphase I… though this could hardly hold my attention for longer than a couple of minutes, it was better than looking at anything else in the bland room.

Well, anything other than…

"That's it," said the object of my current musing. She stood up quickly, and knocked her chair over in the process. I wanted to smile.

"I'm out of here before I carve out my eyeballs just for something to do." She stated. I frowned in confusion – getting out of here? Impossible. The only door led straight into the office, and straight past the secretary. Not to mention the fact that the door in question was locked.

"Getting out? How? They locked the door after us." This stopped her for a moment. I watched her chew unconsciously on her bottom lip, and gaze blankly at the window. Suddenly, a bright smile lit her face, and she walked briskly across the room.

It took me a minute to understand what she was doing at the wall opposite the door.

"You're going to crawl out the window?" I asked, amused. It seemed so cliché.

"Yup." She replied smoothly, pulling away the curtains and opening the window easily. Like a pro, she hoisted one leg over the ledge, and prepared to drop, pausing first to glance back in my direction.

"You're staying here? Well, have fun wasting your day then."

Without another word, she dropped silently to the ground.

Unconsciously I jumped from my seat and ran to the window – knowing her stability issues, it was quite possible she could have broken a leg, though the drop was only a couple of feet.

By the time I got to the window, however, she had already collected herself and was making her way to the parking lot.

I didn't stop to think as I quickly followed her out the window.

"Decided detention wasn't the best way to spend your day after all?" she called to me without turning around. _No,_ I thought to myself, _but I would follow you anywhere._ This thought shook me – it was completely true.

"I have finally seen the light," I muttered, chuckling, in reply to both her and my mental statement.

We walked together to the parking lot, though Bella was three strides ahead. When we finally reached the expanse of pavement she turned towards her truck without further acknowledgement, and I to mine.

I had just reached my car when I huge raindrop landed on my head, quickly followed by a dozen others.

"Shit," I muttered, racing to get out of the rain. A second later I was in my Volvo, the heat and music both cranked up.

I sat still for awhile, flexing my fingers and toes in an attempt to warm them up. It didn't surprise, or bother me when it didn't work – my extremities were almost always cold.

While I attempted to warm up, I looked around the parking lot. Directly ahead of me on the opposite side was Bella's truck. I smiled as I saw she was still outside the door, fumbling with her keys. It was so Bella.

Eventually she managed to open the door, and heaved herself in. I waited for her to drive away, but her truck remained stationary. Odd.

By now the rain had become torrential, making it nearly impossible to see across the lot. I slowly put the Volvo in gear, decided to drive around and get a better look. When I had halved the distance between our cars, I understood why she had yet to move.

There was an unnatural gurgling coming from the engine of her car, that I could hear even above the rain. I laughed silently, shaking my head. Leave it to Bella to flood her engine on a day like today – honestly, the girl attracted trouble like a magnet.

I kept the Volvo at a slow crawl, always moving in the direction of the truck. What was she going to do? Did she have a cell phone to call for help?

By now, I was almost directly beside Bella. Suddenly, the truck's door flew open, and she leapt out, her feet skidding on the wet pavement. Instinctively, I leaned across the passenger seat and opened the door.

It took her a second to realize there was a car in front of her. I watched her brow furrow and her mouth moving – of course I couldn't hear what she was saying above the rain.

"Get in," I called, making sure it was loud enough to be heard. Surprisingly she slid into the passenger seat without a complaint.

I tried not to look at her, but it was hard – her wet clothes were clinging to her, and even with dark rimmed eyes and wet hair she looked good.

"Why are you still here?" she asked, tilting her head away from me as she did so

"I was listening to a CD," I said slowly, "then I saw you getting out of your car to stand in the rain."

True enough.

"My damn truck won't start," she said unnecessarily, "so I'm walking home."

I smiled. Walking? Did she not realize she was sitting in a perfectly functional car?

"Would you like a drive?" I asked carefully. I mentally crossed my fingers as I watched her consider it. Her thoughts were clear in her eyes. She hated the cold and wet, but she also hated me – so what to choose?

"Fine," she said finally. My heart leapt. "Drive me home."

I shifted gears without a sound, heading for the main road. Out of the corner of my eye I watched her stare at her truck in the rear-view. She looked sad – maternal, even.

"I could come back for it after," I said, "And get Rosalie to take a look at it. It might surprise you, but she has a way with cars." She smiled.

"Thanks. That would be… helpful." She said earnestly. I smiled in return.

The silence that followed wasn't the kind I was used to with her. The atmosphere was neither tense, nor angry. Just… awkward.

"How about some music?" I said finally, "I have some CDs in the glove compartment."

As soon as I said it I regretted it – what if she didn't like my music? What if she was into, god forbid, pop music? It didn't seem likely based on what I knew of her personality, but you never know…

It was too late to take it back, however, as she had already popped open the glove compartment and pulled out my ridiculously overstocked CD case. She picked one at random, and her jaw dropped.

"Linkin Park?" she asked. I wasn't quite sure what to make of her tone… I glanced at the CD in her hand.

"Ya, Meteora. I have their other CDs in there somewhere too."

As she took out more and more CDs, it became clear that I had been silly to worry. Of course a girl like Bella would have impeccable musical taste (if I did say so myself).

She shoved a Rise Against CD into the slot, bobbing her head as it played.

"You," she said after a minute, "have great taste in music."

I laughed, glad that she agreed. "I like to think so."

To my delight, things continued to get better. We chatted above the music, with hardly any more awkwardness. In fact, it took her a couple of minutes to realize we were parked outside her house. When she did, she looked confused. I frowned slightly – had I gone to the wrong address? No, of course not – how many times in my childhood had a ran by this very house, waving to Police Chief Swan as I went?

"How d'you know where I live?" she asked.

Oh. Of course. Coming from Phoenix, such a huge city, of course it would seem strange for her that I knew where she lived.

"Forks is tiny. Everyone knows where everyone lives," I explained, smiling at her expression.

"I don't," she pointed out.

"You" I said slowly, "are an exception." _To everything_, I added to myself.

"Do you want to go somewhere? Or even just drive around? Charlie's not home yet, and I don't really feel like being alone…" she blushed. I mentally slapped myself for staring, and nodded. Yes! Had she finally decided to give me a chance?

I pulled back out of her driveway.

"There's a coffee shop two blocks away."

We arrived in no time, and quickly bought coffees and sat down.

"So," I said lightly, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

She nodded for me to continue.

"What did Lauren do to deserve a broken nose?" I'll admit, I grinned. I couldn't help it. She grinned back.

"Oh, she'd been asking for it since I first met her. And I figured if I didn't do it, nobody would."

How true. I laughed.

"You're different, Bella, I'll give you that."

Suddenly, I froze. Different… she was different. In good ways, and then… in ways that were not as good. Before today, she didn't seem interested in me at all. Maybe even disgusted. Disgusted enough to invite some boy all the way from Phoenix…

"So I heard… ," I started slowly, "that you have some friends from Phoenix coming down."

My heart crashed as she grinned and nodded.

"Yea, Dan and Kyle."

"Are they…," Are they what? Better keep it light…, "how long are they staying for?"

"They get here on Wednesday, and leave Sunday," she looked confused. Obviously wondering why I cared so much about these boys…

"Any particular reason they're coming?" I pushed. By now she was frowning.

"No, nothing in particular… just to catch up," I could tell she was lying – she was completely avoiding eye contact, and she was incessantly twirling a lock of her hair around her left index finger.

"The dance is this Friday," I said roughly. Why was she lying? Her face hardened in response to my expression.

"Thanks, I didn't know," she said, sarcasm burning through her words.

"I think there's another reason they're coming," I said flatly.

"You're wrong," she said. It was obvious she was on the defensive. I was right.

"Well, you don't have to worry about it anyways," I snapped, "I would never ask you to the stupid dance."

She was a good actress. Her surprise looked almost genuine.

"Wait, _what?_ Why do you think I invited them?"

"So that you wouldn't have to go to the dance with any _Forks Boys_, that's why," I hissed, seriously mad now.

"You cocky… you arrogant… you really think I would go through all that trouble so that I wouldn't have to go the dance with a _'Forks Boy'_?What, do you not think I'm capable of just saying no? You… You…" she stuttered, seething.

"Well I _know _there's a reason they're coming," I snapped, "I can tell you're lying."

"Well, if you must know, there _is_ a reason, but there's no chance in hell that I'd tell you now!" she yelled, standing up quickly. She left the coffee shop at a run.

"Shit!" I muttered. Good job, Edward. Way to lose your cool. The _one_ time we start getting along, and I go completely psycho! Shit, shit, shit!

I ran out after her, jumping in my Volvo when I saw her already half way down the road. A second later I was crawling along beside her. I rolled down the window and called out:

"Bella! Bella, look at me. I'm sorry! I admit, I… I overreacted. Come on, get in, you'll get pneumonia!"

She never looked at me, keeping her face stubbornly ahead.

I followed her all the way to her street. By then I realized she wasn't going to change her mind. I swore fluently under my breath, and then, surpassing the speed limit by fifty, shot away.

* * *

"Edward! Edward! Come on, you _need_ to get up!" Alice screamed in my ear. I swore at her and rolled over. She didn't give up.

"Edward, it's time to go! Come _on_!"

I groaned. Time to go? No, it couldn't be – it seemed as though I had only just gotten in. In fact, this wasn't too far from the truth – I hadn't returned home until past midnight, venting my anger on the roads.

For once I had refused to tell Alice what had happened. Though I'm sure she guessed it had to do with Bella – she was really the only one who could get me into these kinds of moods.

"Edward, don't make me…"

I groaned, but got up.

"I'm up. Now get out so I can get dressed."

She silently obliged, and I got ready quickly. Just as I was leaving my room, I heard a strangled cry from the other end of the hall.

"What the-" I rushed to the source of the noise, only to find Alice, sitting cross legged in front of the stair. It took me a second to find her amidst all the shopping bags.

"Alice, what happened?" I asked, worried. She had really sounded in pain…

"Nothing," she said, though she winced as she spoke. I noticed she was massaging her right wrist.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

She shook her head no. I raised an eyebrow, letting her know I knew that was a load of bull.

"Alright, I hurt my wrist carrying this stuff. But I'm fine. Let's go."

"Let me see."

She silently showed me her wrist. I gasped – it was already swelling.

"Alice! You can't go to school like that. You won't be able to write anything! Here, I'll get you some ice…"

Though she huffed and puffed and put up quite a fight, we finally convinced Alice that she should stay home. When we finally left, she was propped up in her bed with her wrist wrapped and a bowl of chicken noodle soup on her lap.

The school day was an uneventful haze. Bella didn't sit at our table at lunch, which was to be expected, what with Alice at home and her mad at me.

In biology I simply didn't have the energy for another showdown with her, and decided ignorance was the safest bet, at the moment atleast. So I spent the entire period in silence. To anybody watching, I would have looked like the perfect student – quiet, attentive. In truth I had absolutely no idea what the teacher was droning on about, and if someone were to ask me I doubt I would have been able to repeat a single thing he had said.

I knew I had to talk to Bella soon. Maybe, just maybe, I could preserve a tiny scrap of how we had been yesterday? If I did it very carefully…

With this in mind, I raced off to detention as soon as the last period bell had rang, wanting to beat her there to prepare myself. The result of this was that I had very little space in my mind for anything else. Including the fact that I had ditched detention the day before. My memory was quickly refreshed, however, as soon as I walked into the main office.

"Mr. CULLEN," the secretary screeched. I jumped, completely unprepared for such a welcome.

"Skipping DETENTION? Crawling out a WINDOW? What has come OVER YOU? I've never seen students behave the way you and Ms Swan have! This earns you both FOUR MONTHS of detention. Now SIT DOWN, and I do not want to hear A SINGLE WORD from you!"

I sat down quickly, and without a word. Shit. Four months of detention. With Bella. Life was cruel.

A minute later Bella entered the office, to a similar reception. We were then ushered into the detention room, with the door locked behind us. I was amused to see they had also locked the windows.

I was not amused, however, to find the atmosphere thicker than ever between Bella and I.

_Good job, Edward, _I thought to myself, _you've got a lot of work ahead of you to make this right._

Did I ever.


	15. Yodelayheehoo?

Hi! Shockingly enough i am still around.. now the question is, are any of you? Let me know.. i feel a finale coming along.

Sorry doesn't even cover it.. but i'll say it anyway – sorry and many appy polly logies to all you lovely readers and reviewers, past present aaand future!


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